


Flip the Boss [Flip Zimmerman X Reader]

by driver_fans



Series: Flip the Boss [2]
Category: Adam Driver - Fandom, Fanfiction - Fandom, Flip Zimmerman - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:13:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 40,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28288263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driver_fans/pseuds/driver_fans
Summary: #2 in series [1/2 = Flip the Colleague]Flip Zimmerman X Reader insert fanfiction story based on a continuation of Flip the Colleague.All you've ever wanted was a quiet life with your favorite guy by your side. Now that you have your mountain man back, how will you keep your chaotic past from derailing your bright future together? With Flip taking charge at home and at work, your lives may be in for a readjustment.Warnings:Sexually explicitMature audiences onlyAdult languageReader 18+Alcohol/drugs/carelessnessAngstViolenceBloodDramaEmotional distressDeathI will do my best to provide trigger warnings before each chapter without spoilers.This is a continuation story based on the first novel Flip the Colleague. It will follow the same storyline and will be reader insert so it's highly recommended that you read the first part (23 Chapters, approx read time 6.5) to fully understand the developments in Flip the Boss.
Relationships: Adam Driver/You, Flip Zimmerman/Reader, Flip Zimmerman/You
Series: Flip the Boss [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072094
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	1. All I want for Christmas

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Squinting your eyes and rolling over, you grabbed your phone and hit snooze before pulling the blanket over your head, not wanting any part of having to wake up and get ready for work. You reached your arm out to the empty space next to you and sighed.

It had been well over a month since you last saw Flip before you were released from the hospital. Bringing your arm back to you and lifting the blanket away from your face, you let the morning light shine in, holding your hand up to study the ring on your finger. Just looking at it made you feel better about having to wait for him.

Getting Hopper acclimated to CSPD and helping him get settled was keeping Flip busy back in Colorado and while you understood the delay, Christmas was tomorrow and you wanted to spend it with him. He promised over and over that he would be with you tonight but at this point, it seemed like it might not happen.

Groaning out of frustration, you brought yourself up and out of bed, heading over to grab clothes for the day. You had cleared space for him in your closet and dresser weeks ago and just imagining his clothes hanging up and touching yours gave you butterflies. But seeing the emptiness instead next to your garments all by themselves made you depressed. You should have waited to make room.

Once you were ready for the day, you hurried into the kitchen to pour coffee into a travel mug, shouting a quick thank you to Sara who brewed it before she starting getting ready for the day, too. She probably didn't even hear you over the running water from the shower but at least you tried.

Grabbing your phone from the counter you noticed a text from Flip.

"Morning baby. Call me when you see this."

Taking a deep exhale, knowing it was probably a call to tell you he was too busy to make it into town tonight, you reluctantly dialed his number and brought the phone up to your ear.

"... yeah... yeah, and you'll need to make sure Ron knows, too, he can fill out the paperwork..."

He was clearly in the middle of a conversation when he answered the phone so you waited for him to greet you before speaking.

"Hey, babe. Sorry bout that," he said, voice sounding tired and dull.

You wondered if he had slept a full night since everything happened. You knew he was dealing with some post-traumatic stress since you were also experiencing flashbacks, usually at night.

"Hey, honey," you said, sweetly, trying to uplift him. "Does daddy have good news or bad news for me?" you chuckled in an attempt to be cute.

The sound of him smirking followed by a subtle growl into the phone made you smile.

"I'm gonna try my best to get there tonight. But things are a little crazy over here." he sighed deeply. "One of our officers got shot last night during a routine stop and the piece of shit coward took off on foot and is probably hiding out in some fuckin' sewer like a rat. So we gotta find him."

You tried to contain your disappointment, not wanting to stress Flip out even more so you just rolled your eyes to yourself, bit your tongue, and told him it was fine. You wanted so badly to feel his arms around you again but alas, what's another night away from each other at this point.

"I'm sorry. I know you're being easy on me. I know you're pissed."

If anything, it made you smile knowing that he had come to learn your emotions so well.

"I miss you," you said, walking over to grab your purse and keys. "And when you finally do get here, I'm never letting you leave again."

He let out a devilish laugh. "I'd love to see you try to overpower me, sweet thing."

You paused before opening the front door. "That sounds like a challenge."

You didn't know it because you couldn't see him but Flip bit his lower lip and narrowed his eyes, imagining you taking control of him. He missed you more than he could ever articulate into words.

"I love you," he said, softly into your ear.

"I love you, too."

____________________________________________________________________________

Flip had spent the last month and a half working alongside Hopper, helping him move, getting him acquainted with the department, and showing him around town. Rick's quickly became an after-hours pit-stop for them before calling it a night and heading home.

Home.

Flip's cabin wasn't the cozy place it used to be for him. There were too many traumatic memories tied to it which pissed him off because they would overshadow the fond memories of you. Like when you pulled into his driveway for the first time as he watched from his porch, heart racing at the mere sight of your headlights peeking through the trees down the driveway. Or his last night with you before you moved when he walked in and saw you standing in his kitchen, wearing only his flannel.

He found it increasingly more difficult to sleep in his own bed, knowing how Mandy deceptively made herself comfortable in it the night she drugged him. He still didn't know for sure if she was lying or if he really did fuck her that night. He wanted to believe that it was all a well-planned out lie just to keep him under her evil control. But he would never know what exactly happened. The truth died with her.

Flip would pass out most nights on his couch, in his clothes, tossing and turning all night, unable to subdue the mental stress of the last few months. He was struggling without you in major ways. His health was shit, his patience was running thin and now he wasn't sure if he would even see you on Christmas all because of some ass clown criminal who was on the run.

What should have been a three week transition period to get moved out of Colorado Springs and into his new role at Salt Lake, turned into five weeks and counting. It was no one's fault, in particular, just the Captain's orders to make sure the CSPD unit was fully functional again after everything that happened.

Flip knew Robert (aka Chief) Bridges was still out there, somewhere, being tracked down by the FBI. He assumed Bridges wanted his head on a stick having killed his one and only daughter. Running into Mrs. Bridges in the supermarket a week ago certainly didn't help his anxiety. He had heard from around town that she was in divorce proceedings but Flip didn't keep his guard down around her. He knew that the whole family was deeply troubled. The look of fury in her eyes when she glared at him was enough to send chills down his spine.

He needed to get the hell out of Colorado Springs.

"Goddammit! This fuckin' thing," Flip said, hitting the coffee machine with his hand. Ron walked into the break room and took note of Flip's demeanor.

"Did it break again?" Ron asked, examining it from the sideline as Flip roughly handled the machine.

"It's a piece of shit, like everything else in this damn place," he vented, shoving his mug over to the sink and sighing in frustration.

"Chill man, you've been on edge all week. Just go grab a cup from the cafe down the road," Ron suggested, inspecting the machine and trying to fix it.

"It's not about the coffee," Flip leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. "It's Christmas Eve and I should be on a plane right now." he continued, gesturing with his hands. "I swear to God, if I find this fucking asshole tonight, I'm kicking the shit of him."

Ron smirked and nodded. "Yeah, I think we all are so you'll need to get in line. Nobody is happy about having to go on a manhunt on Christmas," he said while unplugging the machine and plugging it back in. "But... hopefully... we find him quick and then everyone can go home. Including you." Ron made a 'ta-da' motion with his hands as the machine started back up.

"Fucking finally," Flip said, grabbing his mug and patting Ron on the arm. "You must have magic hands."

Ron arrogantly brushed his shoulders off and did a spin. "That's what the ladies tell me."

Flip rolled his eyes. "What ladies? The ones you play Bingo with?"

Ron lifted his brow at Flip. "Don't knock it till you try it, my man. I've met some wild ones at the Bingo hall."

Flip couldn't contain his laugh. "Hard pass. I've got a hot mama waiting for me in Salt Lake," he poured the coffee into his mug. "Who, by the way, will have my ass handed to me if I don't make it there tonight," he smirked at the thought of you being angry with him. Not that he ever wanted to upset you on purpose, but he loved how cute you looked when you were mad.

"Fair enough. More tail for me to chase." Ron said as he moved his hips side to side, mischievously.

Flip gave him an unimpressed look as Ron did his ornery little dance. "Jesus, put that shit away," Flip replied, shaking his head.

"You can't put moves like this away." Ron proclaimed as Flip shook his head and walked out of the room, leaving Ron alone, still dancing.

Two hours later Flip, Ron, Hopper and the rest of the unit scoured through a forest area believed to be where the runaway criminal could potentially be hiding out. It was just shy of dusk so everyone had flashlights, scanning back and forth over the somewhat melted snow and wet leaves on the ground.

Flip paused and bent down, studying what he thought looked like a footprint in the muddy snow. He scanned the area, holding his flashlight up to search the area around him. He saw Hopper off in the distance and a few other voices of cops chatting nearby. He brushed away some leaves on the ground around it and found another print and another. He quietly followed the trail which led to a ditch and sewer drain. He looked over his shoulder and whistled to Hopper, flashing the light at him to gain his attention, signaling that he may have found something.

He stepped down into the ditch and drew his weapon, holding it out in front of him with one hand as it rested on the other holding the flashlight ahead. "CSPD..." he warned approaching the drain tunnel. "I know you're down here, you fuckin' rat."

Hopper wasn't far behind Flip now, stepping down into the ditch to provide back up.

A figure stepped out from the darkness of the tunnel and Flip shouted, "Hands up, motherfucker!"

The unnamed person held up their hands to surrender and Flip aimed his gun and the flashlight onto them.

Mandy's face beamed back. He squinted his eyes and blinked several times trying to correct his vision. But it was still her. He froze, unable to move or speak, staring into the eyes of a dead woman.

Hopper shouted from behind and pushed past him tackling the figure to the ground and cuffing them. Other officers started piling in as Flip stood like a statue, breathing heavy, trying to understand what he just saw.

Hopper looked up at Flip and noticed from his expression how he was in a completely different reality. Pulling the criminal up off the ground, Hopper led him out of the tunnel. Flip looked at the face once more and saw a man this time. The one they've been hunting down.

Hopper handed the criminal off to another officer and placed a hand on Flip's shoulder. "Hey man, you alright? You hesitated big time. Like you saw a ghost or something," he said, disengaging his weapon and putting it back into its holster.

Flip took a deep breath, eyes still looking ahead where he saw her. "I...uh....yeah. I don't know. Sorry."

He didn't want to admit out loud that he just hallucinated and saw the woman he killed staring into his soul.

He just needed sleep, he told himself. Sleep deprivation was making him see things. That must be it. He would be able to finally rest easy once he was in bed next to you again.

____________________________________________________________________________

It was nearing 7 PM and still no word from Flip. You started packing up your belongings, feeling defeated and wondering what else you would try to busy yourself with on Christmas Eve.

Wine, cookies, TV. All of the above.

Jack started packing up too and you glanced over at him. "Big plans tonight?" you asked, wondering if he would also be alone.

"Uh, yeah, actually. A date," he said with a cute grin.

"Oooh, a Christmas date? Wow... sounds pretty serious," you nudged, hoping he would share more information. You had no idea he was dating but you weren't surprised. He was a catch.

"Um, I dunno. Maybe. It's our third date now so...," he put his blazer on and adjusted it, still smiling. He looked happy, which made you happy, even if you were about to be alone on Christmas and passing out with cookie crumbs all over yourself.

"Nice. The third date is usually when you know for sure," you shrugged, giving him a hopeful look.

"Oh, you mean, the third date is when you finally have sex?" He joked back.

Feeling embarrassed, you gazed down and back up at him. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

There was a long pause.

"Is he coming?" Jack asked, breaking the silence.

You shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal out of anything. "Maybe. I haven't heard yet."

Jack nodded and gazed down to his feet with a sigh.

"Well, Merry Christmas," he said, walking over and lightly touching your arm before leaving.

"...Merry Christmas," you replied as he walked away, leaving you alone in the mostly empty unit with the exception of the cleaning crew. Everyone else had gone home early to be with their families.

Two hours later you were sitting curled up on your couch, staring dead ahead, mesmerized by the colorful Christmas lights on the tiny tree that you put up in the living room. Sara was visiting family for the evening so it was just you, your wine, and A Christmas Story on the TV.

Your heart was heavy as you held your cell phone loosely in your hand, waiting for a buzz, a ring, the screen to light up... anything.

You checked the time again... 10 PM. You dialed Flip's cell and waited for him to answer. It rang several times before his voicemail picked up and you hung up, without bothering to even leave a message.

Holding the phone in your hand, you stared at it and chugged the rest of your wine.

Letting the phone drop into your lap, you held up your hand to observe the ring again. It glistened from the soft lights illuminating the room from the Christmas tree.

It was an 8-hour drive. If you left now and drove all night, you could at least see him on Christmas morning. Looking at the time again, then your ring, then the TV, you abruptly tossed the throw cover off of you and sprinted into your bedroom to pack an overnight bag.

You rushed to put anything within arms reach into the bag, not paying too much attention since time was ticking away. The sooner you could leave, the sooner you'd be in his arms again. And that was all you wanted for Christmas.

Bolting into the living room, you shut the TV off, put your shoes and coat on quickly before doing a brief scan of the place, feeling satisfied to leave it.

You swung the front door open, bag over your shoulder, and out of breath when you were stopped dead in your tracks.

Flip stood at the threshold wearing a red and white fluffy Santa hat. He looked at you doe-eyed as he held up a carton of eggnog with one hand, then seconds later held up a bottle of dark rum in the other hand, giving you a sinful grin.

"Ho, ho, ho," he said in his deep, seductive voice.

You exhaled sharply, feeling a huge weight being lifted from you, dropping your bag to the floor and wrapping your arms around his neck.

He put his arms around you, still clutching onto the restitutions he brought.

"You're here," you said, voice muffled into his neck. You pulled back and kissed him sweetly, finally feeling his full, soft lips pressed against yours again after weeks and weeks of nothing but phone calls. Slowly you both released the kiss and stared into each other's eyes.

"Of course I'm here. I'll be damned if I leave my fiancé alone on Christmas," he smiled as you felt the butterflies return to your stomach that you missed so much. You pulled him inside the apartment by his coat collar and he followed without a fight.

He kicked the door shut behind him with his heel, tossing the items he was holding onto the couch so that he could finally touch you. His hands found your face first as you both kissed each other wildly, then they moved to remove his coat.

You took your coat off next, followed by your top and pants. Neither of you had undressed faster in your lives, hands roaming all over as you clung to the places you missed most on each other.

Pulling on Flip's undone pants to guide him closer, you pushed on his bare chest to sit on the couch. He collapsed down onto it with a crooked grin, watching as you positioned yourself between his knees in only your bra and panties.

"God, I've missed you," he said, reaching down to pull out his fully hard length and gripping it in his large hand.

You licked your lips and slowly lowered yourself to your knees, placing your hands on his thighs to assist you along the way. His breath hitched at the sight of you on your knees for him.

"I've missed you, too, daddy," you said, reaching over to wrap your dainty hand around his thick cock, replacing his grip with your own as he moved his hand to run his long fingers through the tendrils of your hair.

You slowly stroked him as you both gazed into each other's eyes.

"I can't wait to make you my wife," he whispered, lips parted as his breath picked up.

You bit your bottom lip, feeling like a girl who just fell in love for the first time.

Gradually and with your eyes locked on his, you moved your mouth closer to him, lightly licking the head of dick at first, teasingly. You watched as his eyes lit on fire, completely enthralled in your every move on him.

Bringing your mouth down you trailed your tongue from the bottom of his shaft to the very top before covering the tip with your lips, causing him to twitch from over-stimulating his nerve endings.

"Fuck," he whispered. "So fucking good to me," he praised, stroking your hair.

All at once, you took as much of him into your throat as you could, encasing his length with your hot, wet mouth. A deep groan escaped him as you pulled up then back down again, letting your hands assist you with the entire length.

He was so hard for you, and you wanted nothing more than to show him how much you missed him. You bobbed your head up and down as he clasped your hair in his hand, watching you suck him off.

He began bucking his hips up to meet your mouth and you moaned into him. The vibrations sent him into overdrive and he lifted you off of him, unable to contain the urge to be inside of you.

"Come here, baby," he said in a deep and urgent tone, pulling you onto his lap. " I need that pussy."

Straddling his hips, you clutched the sides of his face as he held his dick upright, wetting the tip of it for you with his saliva before rubbing it against your folds. You lowered yourself onto him and both of you let out a gasp from the initial sensation, pausing to feel the mutual tightness and throbbing against each other.

"I love you," you whispered against his parted lips as you began to move up and down. "You make me so happy."

He crashed his lips onto you for a deep kiss before releasing it. "I love you," his voice strained as you moved a bit faster. "I love everything about you," he said, holding you close and burying his face into your cleavage, kissing and sucking.

You threw your head back and bounced even harder, feeling every inch of him stretching your walls as his thick cock opened you wide. Your moans became louder when you felt him thrust upwards, grabbing your hips and taking control. He leaned back into the couch to leverage himself better as you writhed on top of him. His face strained, his chest swelled from tensed muscles as he worked to fuck you harder.

"Oh my god ... Flip... yes...right there, baby," you moaned, gripping at your tits as you bounced ferociously on his cock, feeling your walls begin to clamp down on him.

He growled in response, not able to hold his overdue orgasm back any longer. "I'm gonna fuckin' cum, baby... I want you to cum with me." He pressed his lips together trying to hold out for you.

"Fuck yes, give it to me..." you moaned.

You felt it building more and more and just as your peak hit, the warmth of Flip spill out inside of you as he grunted loudly. A flash of ecstasy hit, your body trembling as your orgasm shot through your veins. You pulled him close into your chest, holding onto one another as you seductively rocked your hips back and forth, letting yourself come down from the long-awaited release of pleasure.

Holding each other in the aftermath, breathing heavy, Flip brought his gaze to you and placed a soft kiss on your lips. "Merry Christmas, sweet thing," he whispered while grinning.

"Merry Christmas..." you brushed his hair away from his face and placed a soft kiss on the tip of his nose. "...Daddy."

He was finally home. And now you could finally begin your life with one another.

Quietly... peacefully...together.


	2. Home Sweet Home

Flip stood in the hotel lobby, feet glued to the floor. He saw Mandy raise the loaded gun, barrel pointed directly at him. He tried to move but was paralyzed. 

Then you appeared. 

His heart began racing, thrashing his body in his mind but not actually moving at all. He tried desperately to push you out of the way, to yell your name. But there was nothing but silence in the air.

The bullet left the gun in slow motion, Flip yelled again into nothing as it penetrated your skull knocking you backwards, blood spraying out and landing all over his face. 

He watched in complete shock as your body collapsed to the ground, crimson red pooling all around you, lips turning blue. He could taste your blood in his mouth as he wiped it from his face, tears filling his eyes, heart shattered into a million pieces.

Looking back at Mandy, he didn't see her face anymore. He saw Robert Bridges holding the gun and smiling at Flip in victory.

*******************************

Gasping for air, Flip shot up from the bed, jolting you awake along with him. You placed your hand on his shoulder as you lifted yourself up, eyes trying focus. He was sweating like crazy and trembling.

"Hey... hey, you okay, baby?" you asked, running your fingers through his moist hair.

Chest heaving, he took a deep breath and grabbed your hand, squeezing it to ensure that you were really there and it was just a nightmare. He took a second to recall what just happened before looking over at you.

"Jesus... yeah, I-" he paused, shook his head, and swallowed. "I'm alright. Just a bad dream. I'm sorry," he raised your hand up and kissed it.

You smirked. "It's okay, you don't need to be sorry," you stroked his back. "What was it?"

There was no way Flip was going to tell you what he just witnessed in his mind. It was too traumatic and he didn't want you to relive anything.

Putting his arm around you and drawing you into his chest, he laid back down as you rested your head into the nook of his shoulder.

"It was nothing, baby," he kissed the top of your head, mind flashing back to tasting your blood in his mouth. "Just a bad dream," he stared up to the ceiling as he stroked your hair. 

You fell back asleep cuddling up against him but Flip stayed awake, trying to find comfort in the fact that he was at least lying in bed next to you even if he couldn't get the rest that his mind and body needed.

A few hours later, the sun peeking through your bedroom blinds woke you up again. Flip was spooning you and placing soft kisses on the nape of your neck.

You turned over to look at him as his kisses trailed from your neck to your shoulder.

"Hey, again," you murmured, grinning at the affection.

"Hey..." his words were muffled against your skin.

You both froze when you heard the unmistakable sounds of sex happening in the other room. Flip lifted his head and narrowed his eyes with a slight grin.

"Is that... coming from... this apartment?" he said, smirking and looking over his shoulder.

You put your hand over your mouth, realizing it was coming from Sara's room. "Oh. my. GOD. Ohmygod, ohmygod..." you said, giddy and embarrassed. "It's Sara."

Flip raised his brows and frowned. "Hm. Well good for her," he said, chuckling as the noises became more and more rampant. "Jesus..." he whispered.

You both couldn't contain your snickering as you laid there, unable to ignore the sound of her bed squeaking and the feral moans through the wall.

"So wait... who is she with?" Flip asked, trying to remember if he forgot a detail of Sara being in a relationship.

You rose from the bed and started to put on some pajamas. "I have no idea. She hasn't said anything to me. I know she was at her family's last night," you said, putting your arms through Flip's button-up shirt.

Flip smirked. "Maybe it's a cousin."

You tossed his pants at him. "Ew! You nasty!" you laughed as he sat up and caught the jeans. 

"Shhh! They're gonna hear you, loud mouth." Flip whispered, pausing to make sure he could still hear the action but it was silent now. "See? You crashed a good time. Now he probably has blue balls."

You rolled your eyes at him, buttoning up the flannel you put on. "Yeah, you know all about that, don't you, daddy?" you teased, remembering how sexually frustrated you both were during your time apart. No amount of phone sex could ever replace the real deal.

He groaned, standing up to pull his jeans on. "Yeah, no shit, pussycat." He glanced around, looking for his shirt when he finally took notice of you wearing it. "Thief." he teased.

You walked over to him and wrapped your arms around his neck. "Hey, what's yours is mine, now," you said, innocently gazing up into his eyes and smiling. "And what's mine is yours."

He growled, trying to remain stoic but you saw a faint grin. He squeezed your ass with both his hands. "Guess this is mine, then."

You bit your bottom lip. "You're the boss." 

Flip couldn't hide his smile any longer at your witty comment, knowing that he was going into the station tomorrow as the new Chief. 

You kissed each other but Flip released it before you were ready to stop. "Hey, I almost forgot. I have something for you."

He moved your arms down from his neck and walked over to the suitcase he brought, unzipping it and pulling out another flannel along with a small box. Slinging the flannel on over his frame and buttoning it up, he handed you the box.

You held it, waiting for him to tell you when to open it. 

He buttoned up his flannel and looked over at you. "Go ahead, baby," he said sweetly, watching you lift the top off with excitement.

You picked up the shiny metal key that was inside and held it up. "A key? A key to..." you asked, waiting for him to tell you what it belonged to.

"Our home," he finished your sentence.

You were taken aback as you looked at it then back at him. "Our home? You bought a house?"

Grinning at your state of shock, he crossed his arms and looked at you pointedly. "We're gonna need our own place if we're gonna be together."

Your mind immediately went to Sara, who moved to Salt Lake because you asked her to. You hoped Flip could understand that you couldn't just ditch your best friend with an unfulfilled lease agreement. 

"Yeah, I know. It's just... what about Sara? She can't afford this place alone." 

Flip nodded at you as if he knew you were going to mention Sara's predicament. 

"Well, I haven't talked to Sara or anything but there's a loft above the garage where she's more than welcome to stay rent-free for as long as she'd like," Flip suggested, looking at you for an agreement. 

There was a reason you fell in love with this man and at that moment you were grateful to be planning your life together. He was everything you never knew you needed, and the fact that he thought of Sara's situation and solved it before you even asked just proved even further how thoughtful he was.

You stood on your tiptoes and kissed him. "Have I told you lately how amazing you are?" you asked.

He smirked. "No, but how bout you show me?"

You hummed, wrapping your arms around his waist. "What would you like?"

He hummed back at you. "Breakfast. I'm fucking starving." he chuckled and you gave him an ornery smile.

"Okay, I can do that. Coffee, too?" you asked.

"Well, of course, darlin'. Did you forget everything I taught you?"

About an hour later the two of you were sitting at the kitchen table having finished the breakfast you made and chatting over your second cup of coffee. Flip told you more about the house and how it was actually Hopper's old place. Jim (Hopper) had the idea in which he and Flip could swap houses, figuring that they appraised around the same amount. They would work through all the details of the deeds over the next few months.

Hopper's place was a small two-bedroom farmhouse located right outside of town, with a decent amount of land to it and a huge garage with a loft above it. It wasn't anything fancy but Hopper gave Flip the go-ahead to make any changes to it he wanted even before they finalized the paperwork.

Flip was showing you pictures of it on his phone when you both heard some shuffling coming from Sara's room. Perking up from the phone, Flip grabbed his mug to take a sip of his coffee, trying to act casual as you both waited to see who was about to stumble out of her bedroom on a walk of shame. 

Jack stood tall, bare-chested, with only a towel wrapped around his waist as he walked out of the bedroom. Flip spit his coffee back into his mug, unable to control his smirk. You froze, gaze locked on Jack's half-naked body as he nonchalantly nodded at you both before heading into the bathroom and closing the door. 

"Ho-ly shit!" you exclaimed, smacking your thigh. "I had no idea. I mean, Jack said he was dating someone... but..." you paused, unable to finish your sentence.

Flip shrugged. "Well, it makes sense. I saw how close they were while you were in the hospital."

You sat there dumbfounded, trying to understand why Sara kept it a secret from you. It was only a few seconds later when Sara stepped out of her bedroom, eyes meeting yours.

"Hey." she said, short and sassy.

"Um.. heeey," you replied, giving her a stiff wave.

You both stared at each other as you waited for Sara to begin explaining herself as to why she didn't tell you about Jack. You guys would share everything with each other so you took offense to her keeping Jack a secret. 

Flip sat at the table, eyes darting back and forth between you two, not wanting any part of the girl drama that was about to go down.

"Well, that's my cue," he stood from the table and kissed the top of your head. "I'm gonna make some calls from... not here," he said, walking past Sara and back into your bedroom.

Sara walked over and grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"What?" she mocked, as she turned to lean against the counter.

You scoffed and leaned back in your chair. "Nothing. I guess you don't have to tell me everything. I just thought something like this would qualify."

Sara sighed at you. "It's nothing personal, I just knew you would make a big deal out of it and it's just not that big of a deal."

"What's not a big deal?" Jack said, turning on his heel, entering the kitchen, still half-naked. He walked up to Sara and gave her a quick kiss before grabbing a mug from the cabinet. It was as if they both decided that they would act totally natural about it and the fact you were surprised was unnecessary. 

Your eyes involuntarily scanned Jack's muscular torso. God, he looked good. You quickly snapped yourself back to reality, hating your instincts for even letting you check him out like that now.

"Nothing's a big deal, apparently. I'm just happy for you guys," you said, which you truly were happy for them, you were just annoyed that they didn't tell you.

*******************************

Later that day, you and Flip drove to the outskirts of town to check out Hopper's house. Pulling into the long driveway, you saw the tiny white house with a covered front porch. There were trees surrounding the property for some privacy but it was a quaint piece of land, exactly how it looked from the pictures. 

Walking up the porch you glanced around and nodded. "This is cute. We can get some rocking chairs and sit out here in the mornings and drink our coffee like old people." you joked.

Flip glanced around, noticing how private the area was. "Yeah. Or we could fuck out here."

You rolled your eyes and smacked his ass. "I should've seen that coming."

Flip reached into his pocket and handed you the keys. "Wanna do the honor?"

You took the keys from him and smiled. "Sure."

Pushing the key into the deadbolt and twisting, you swung the door open to the living room. The small room was dated and needed some work, but it definitely had potential. The old hardwood floors creaked as you both stepped inside and looked around. It was still fully furnished with all of the essentials as Hopper only took what he could fit into his truck. 

"Hop said we can move things around or even get rid of anything we don't need. Pretty much do whatever we want," Flip said, walking through the house and peeking into each room. "I'll take care of whatever needs fixing, just make me a list."

You walked over to the fireplace to inspect it. "Do you think this works?"

Flip walked over and examined the chimney flue and nodded. "Yeah, should be good. Might need to be cleaned but we can test it out."

A loud crash from the upstairs made you both snap your heads around. It sounded like someone was in the house. Flip reacted immediately by grabbing your arm and pulling you outside of the house.

"Wha...what was that??" You asked, looking over your shoulder as he pulled you towards the car and forced you into the passenger seat. He stayed silent as he reached in front of you quickly and opened the glove box, retrieving his gun.

"Stay here," he ordered, checking to make sure he had enough rounds loaded. 

"Flip... I have my gun, too... I can..." you started to say you could also go with him but he interrupted you.

"STAY. HERE," his voice was deep and stern, sending chills down your spine. "I mean it."

You tensed your jaw and nodded as he shut the door and walked back towards the house. Your heart was racing now, not knowing what he was up against once you saw him disappear through the front door. 

Based on his demeanor it seemed he already knew what was inside.

Anxiety on high, you reached into your purse and grabbed your gun, holding it in your lap just in case you needed it. You didn't dare move since the last time you tried disobeying his orders almost got you killed.

Your leg bounced up and down nervously waiting for some kind of clarity as to what was inside the house.

What seemed like an eternity later but was only minutes in reality, you heard two shots fire back to back. Your heart stopped and you opened the car door, stepping out and yelling Flip's name.

Nothing answered back so you began running towards the house. Once at the threshold you aimed your gun, scanning each area as you made your way up the stairs. You reached a bedroom door that was open and carefully peeked inside the room.

You saw Flip bent down, resting on one knee with a dead cat in front of him. His head was hanging low in shame, staring at the animal.

You lowered your weapon and took a deep breath. "Hey..."

He looked up at you quickly and you saw redness in his eyes. "I fucking killed his cat," he admitted, scoffing to himself. "I didn't even register what it was, I just fired," he looked at the gun still in his hand. "I've never been so careless."

You walked over to him and placed your hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "It's okay, you didn't know," you tried to reassure him but he was clearly not ready to forgive himself. He stood shaking his head. 

"I feel like I'm losing my damn mind," he confessed, running his hand through his hair. 

You pulled him into a hug and wrapped your arms around his torso, resting your head on his chest. "It's gonna take time to feel normal again. I still get jumpy, too, sometimes. We just need to be patient and gentle with ourselves."

Flip shoved his gun in the back waistband of his jeans and wrapped his arms around you, taking a deep breath as you tried to ease his mind with your words. 

"Yeah... we just need time."

Flip didn't know how long it would take for his flashbacks and nightmares to subside. But one thing was for sure; he would never rest easy until Robert Bridges was locked up or dead.


	3. Chief Zimmerman

You peeked over your computer monitor, watching Flip through the window of his office talking on his phone, hands gesturing wildly as they do whenever he's in the zone. You smiled. Feeling your heart flutter at the sight of him sitting in the chief's chair, looking just a natural about it as you imagined he would. Biting your bottom lip you rested your chin on your hand and kept your daydreamy gaze on him. 

Flip was one week into his new role and during that time, you'd witness him take charge of the department as if he'd been doing it for years. Everyone in the unit seemed pleased with him as the new Chief, which didn't come as a surprise to you. Flip always had a way of making friends with just about anyone he came across. There were times you would be waiting for minutes on end for him to finish up small talk with some of the locals, no matter where you were. The gas station, the supermarket, the cafe... he could even chat it up with a shrub if he was drunk enough. 

"I'm glad to see he's not a distraction for you," Jack teased in a smug tone, sitting opposite of you, with an expressive look. 

Averting your eyes quickly and redirecting your attention back to your computer, you giggled. "Sorry." 

Jack glimpsed over his shoulder at Flip then back at you. "I think it's weird he's our boss."

You scoffed in response. "Why? Because you don't like him?"

Jack pinched his brow, "No, I just think... you know... there might be nepotism. He might give me some shit cases. He might reassign you to a different partner," he said, continuing down his list of reasons as you looked at him blankly.

"Look, I know he can be... stubborn..." you kindly rationalized as Jack rolled his eyes. "...BUT... there won't be favoritism under my watch. I won't allow that to happen."

Your desk phone started to ring and you cocked your brow, not even remembering the last time you got a call on it, if ever.

Picking up the receiver suspiciously, you answered. "Salt Lake PD."

"Come to my office."

Your eyes darted over to Flip's office window as you held the receiver to your ear. His dark gaze was heavy on you as he slowly placed his receiver back on the base. You knew exactly what that mischievous look on his face meant. Saying nothing else, you hung the phone up and cleared your throat.

"Who was that?" Jack asked with curiosity. 

Not wanting Jack to know what was up, you acted blase about it. "Prank call, I guess," you said, shrugging. 

Waiting a few seconds, you stood up and grabbed your coffee mug. "I'll be back," you said casually as you leisurely made your way to what appeared to be the breakroom, but stopping at Flip's office door and leaning on the frame.

He was reclined in his chair, rocking back and forth as you both stared at each other.

"Can I help you?" you said, biting back a grin. If he thought you guys would be fucking in his office in the middle of the workday, he was insane.

With a straight face, he leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk. 

"I need you to look at this," he said, raising a hand and gesturing with two fingers to come in. 

This felt like a sexy deja vu of your first night together many moons ago. Look at what? You had a few ideas of what he wanted you to "look at". 

Glancing over your shoulder to make sure no one was paying too close attention, you pushed yourself off the door frame and stepped in closer towards his desk. He held up a piece of paper and studied it.

"This report is all wrong," he said motioning over the scripter. "Grammar errors all over the place, you spelled the defendant's name wrong... twice... not to mention the editing on the surveillance video is piss poor..." he looked up at you wide-eyed and you swallowed, feeling heat flush all over your body. Apparently, this was a work conversation only and not a fun one. 

"If you think I'm gonna take it easy on you because you're the love of my life, you're wrong," he paused, watching your face tense. He laid the report back down on the desk and softened his expression. "You're better than this. I know because I've seen it. So what happened?"

Your heart began racing, wanting so badly to go off on him for being so callous but he wasn't just your fiancé anymore... he was your boss. And you were on work territory, not home. 

Holding back your fury you placed your mug down on his desk, resting both of your palms on the table. "What happened is I got fucking shot a month ago," you calmly reminded him as if you needed to since he was still having recurring nightmares of it, unbeknownst to you. 

He sighed deeply through his nose, glancing down at the desk then back up at you, staying silent.

"So I misspelled some shit and should've double-checked my work. Message received, Chief," you mocked as you saluted him, adjusting your posture to stand tall, crossing your arms. 

Flip's jaw tensed, hooded eyes peering at you. His lack of sleep was catching up to him again and you were pushing his patience. 

"You better fix that fucking attitude," he demanded under his breath.

You angled your head to the side. "Yeah? Or what? You gonna fire me?" you taunted. 

Kicking the mop bucket out of the way, his hands prowled all over your body, as you exchanged sloppy kisses, eager to tear each other apart. It was your first time in the Salt Lake PD maintenance closet, but you made a quick mental note that it was cleaner and more spacious. 

Flip spun you around swiftly and lifted your pencil skirt up to your waist. Empty cleaning bottles dropped to the floor as your arms searched for something to hold onto for leverage before he plunged himself into you, anticipating it would be rough since he was obviously fuming. 

You heard the clacking of his belt being burst undone before you felt the wetness from the spit in his hand run along your pussy. You bit your lip knowing his cock would be next. 

He pushed into you fully with no mercy and a yelp escaped from your throat. His hand found your mouth next, pulling back towards him so he could whisper in your ear.

"Shut... that fucking... mouth," he ordered between each thrust. 

Pain and pleasure mixed with love and anger pulsed through you. You grabbed the wrist of the hand covering your mouth and squeezed as it muffled your moans. 

His huge cock stretched you open more and more with each snap of his hips. 

"You need to learn to take criticism..." he whispered through gritted teeth. "And show some fucking respect."

He was panting, hot breath next to your ear as he picked up his momentum. If this was your punishment for being insubordinate, you weren't changing your attitude in the slightest. 

His dick started throbbing as he plunged deeper into your wet cunt.

"You feel that?" his words slipped out of his mouth and into your ear. "You feel that hard cock inside you? Feel what you do to me with that smart mouth of yours?"

You moaned into his hand, reaching back to run your fingers through his hair, gripping the locks tightly as he started hitting your cervix.

"Shiiit, yeah... so fucking deep," he said, lips finding your neck and drawing the skin into his mouth, sucking wildly. You pushed back into him, matching his thrusts. 

Your orgasm came fast as you moved both of your hands to grasp the shelf in front of you, riding out the pulsating effect all over your body.

Flip moaned into your neck, feeling you tightened around him.

"That's it, baby... that's it..." he encouraged. "Cum for me... cum on daddy's cock." 

His thrusts became quick and erratic as the aftershocks coursed through your veins. Seconds later, you felt the warmth of him cumming inside you as a low grunt from his chest filled the room. 

Breathlessly, he removed his hand from your mouth, grabbing a paper towel from above the utility sink to clean you both up. You pushed your skirt back down and smoothed it out as he stuffed himself back into his pants and redid his belt. 

It had been a while since you both engaged in angry sex like that, recalling the last time being when Flip made you crawl on the floor and apologize for trying to break things off. 

Once you were both put back together again, Flip pulled you into his chest for a hug. You pressed your ear against his pecs, hearing his rapid heartbeat gradually slow down with each deep breath. 

"I'm sorry if I upset you. I just don't want you to waste your potential," he said, kissing the top of your head. 

Although you hated to admit it, his little reprimanding did work. You wanted to do better and knew that you'd been falling behind. But you'd be sure to keep making mistakes on purpose just to keep him on his toes.

*******************************

"Come on, baby! We're already late!" Flip shouted from downstairs as you quickly curled the last lock of hair. It was New Year's Eve and you both had plans with Sara and Jack. It was your first double date with the two of them since you saw Jack walk out of Sara's bedroom a week ago. 

You were slowly but surely moving into the new house, knowing that you and Sara were still paid up through the end of January at the apartment so you could take your time. Sara was pleasantly surprised and grateful to stay in the loft so that she could save some money and figure out her next move in life. 

You scoffed, spraying your hair down with hairspray and flipping your head over several times to create volume. Okay whoa, too much volume. You fussed with it quickly before rushing back into the bedroom and grabbing a jacket from the closet, hustling down the stairs as you put it on.

"Alright, alright, alright... I'm ready," you said, searching around the living room for your purse.

Flip held it up as he stood impatiently by the front door. You snatched it from him and he quickly seized your waist, lips pressing against yours for a lingering kiss that slowed down time for a second. 

Pulling back he gave you a cute smile. "Damn, you look fine as hell," he said before grabbing your ass, "Maybe we should stay home."

You chuckled. "Didn't you get what you needed in the maintenance closet today?"

He nestled his face into the nook of your neck, placing kisses along your shoulder.

"Mmmm...no. I need more. I have an addiction," he murmured, trailing his kisses up to your ear.

"Okay, horn dog. Sara and Jack are waiting for us... we can finish this later," you reasoned, pushing him off of you and reaching for the door as he groaned in response.

You were meeting Sara and Jack at a popular pub that was part restaurant, part line-dancing hall. You didn't know jack shit about line dancing, but you were looking forward to the people watching part of it.

Sara and Jack were already inside, halfway through their first round of drinks when you both approached the table.

"Well, well, well... thought we were getting stood up," Sara said, giving you both a glare with her darkly lined eyes.

"Sorry, it was my fault," you apologized. "I couldn't find the dress I wanted then I had trouble getting my hair curled..." you continued, as the waitress walked up to take your order. You briefly scanned the menu and ordered a margarita and a plate of nachos to share. 

"Bud Light," Flip said, handing the menu back to the waitress. She walked away, leaving the four of you in awkward silence. 

You glanced around as Flip rested his elbows on the table, waiting for someone to speak.

"So, how long have you guys been knockin' boots?" Flip blurted out. You rolled your eyes at him in disbelief.

"Babe!" you said, nudging him.

"What!" he snickered with a shrug. "The fuck else we suppose to talk about?" he turned to you, "Aren't you curious?"

Sara paused from sipping her drink with a deadpan look on her face. "First time was right after you got shot and we were waiting for you to get out of surgery."

"Holy shit," Flip said, looking impressed.

"Jesus!" you exclaimed, shocked at the timeline. "You guys were fucking while I was almost dying??"

Jack chugged the rest of his beer, looking off to the side in shame.

Sara shrugged, "Everyone deals with grief differently." 

The waitress came back with Flip's beer and your margarita, which you grabbed and started sucking down immediately to numb the thoughts of them getting busy during your most traumatic life event to date. 

Flip grinned from amusement as he took the first drink of his beer.

"This is fun." Flip said smiling, putting his arm around you.

An hour later and three margaritas in, you and Flip were slow-dancing to an old country song, tipsy as hell but feeling much more relaxed. It was about five minutes away from midnight so the energy in the pub was just starting to ramp up. 

"You thought more about when you wanna tie the knot, sweet thing?" Flip asked, drunkenly twirling you around before pulling you back into him. You still hadn't nailed down an official date yet.

You bit your bottom lip and tilted your chin up towards him. "Yeah. Let's do it tonight... sweet thang," you joked.

Flip smirked at your answer. "Vegas ain't that far away," he suggested. "I could carry you outta here right now and before you know it, Elvis will be walking you down the aisle to me." 

You perched up on your tiptoes and kissed him, wrapping your arms around his neck while swaying back and forth to the music. The buzzing of his phone in his shirt pocket interrupted the moment. Flip pulled it out and sighed.

"It's Hop, I gotta take this outside so I can hear," he said, looking at the screen then back at you. "Don't move," he said, kissing your forehead.

"Okay, don't forget about me," you replied, glancing at the countdown clock on the pub wall.

You skipped over to Jack and Sara who were also slow dancing a few feet away in their own little world. 

"Heeey," you said, sheepishly, already feeling like a third wheel in their presence. 

"Hey, where'd Flip go?" Jack asked, looking over your shoulder. 

"He stepped outside for a work call," you frowned, looking down at your feet. "Hey, don't forget to remind me, I need to give you a key to the loft so you can start moving in," you said to Sara as she nodded at you. 

"Yeah, I was hoping to paint a couple of the walls if that's okay with you guys? Wood paneling makes me wanna gag," she said, as Jack smirked.

"Hey, my place has wood paneling..." Jack replied, playfully frowning at Sara.

"Yeah, and it makes me wanna gag, that's why we don't stay there..." Sara said, rolling her eyes.

Your focus was disrupted by the ten-second countdown to midnight. 

"There's Flip..." Sara pointed behind you.

Turning on your heel, you started walking up to him when his pale complexion caught your attention, followed by his bloodshot eyes.

"Hey... what is it?" you asked, resting your hand against his chest.

Flip took a minute, looking past you before bringing his gaze to you. 

"Rick's dead."

The noise in the pub escalated as the new year finally arrived, confetti and cheers happening all around you, but it all sounded like white noise in your head.

You stood speechless in front of him, searching his face for more answers. But by the look in his eyes, you knew he didn't have any. 

Flip struggled to hold back his tears as everyone around you joyfully cheered in celebration. You pulled him into an embrace to comfort him.

Rick was his friend. Rick helped him take down Nick and Mandy. 

He didn't know if it was an accident or homicide as Hopper had just been notified of it. But he couldn't hinder the thought if this was the first message of many more to come.


	4. Do what I say

It had been a week since you learned about Rick's death. Hopper confirmed it was homicide so of course that sent red flags up to everyone. Flip had been keeping himself occupied with work, staying at the station until almost midnight while also trying to fix things up around the house during any free time.

When you asked him if he wanted to attend the funeral he dismissed the idea like it was a mundane task that he didn't have time to fit into his busy schedule. Your heart became heavy as you watched him go through the stages of grief, with the first phase being that of disbelief.

One night you woke up to an abandoned bed and while roaming the house looking for him, you discovered a drunk Flip slumped over and passed out on the couch with an empty whiskey glass clutched in his hand. You knew he was still having issues getting the rest he needed but it was painful to see how much he needed to numb his mind. The man you loved was hurting and he was doing everything in his power to appear like nothing was wrong. Night after night he would drink himself into a slumber while you witnessed him sink deeper into another world. 

You tried to think of different ways to comfort him beyond just sex so you began teaching yourself how to cook, believing that maybe some home-cooked meals could help him feel loved. 

The kitchen filled up quickly with smoke as you were off to a rough start with the rosemary chicken you were attempting to roast in the oven. You blamed the old oven for not having a reliable thermostat as you took the pan out. Rushing to address the boiling potatoes next, you looked like a crazed woman on the latest episode of Top Chef.

Flip walked into the kitchen, beer bottle in hand to find out what the hell was happening when he saw your stressed-out state. His lips curled into a smile, entertained by how much trouble you were going through just to cook a meal.

"Should I call the fire department?" he joked, calmly taking a swig of his beer.

"Ugh...NO. Everything's fine," you said, shooing him away with your oven mitt.

Ignoring you, he leaned over to examine the over-cooked chicken. "Hmm," he hummed to himself. "I'm no doctor, but I think it's dead."

You sighed in defeat. "I know, I know... it's not going to be the best chicken you've ever had, but... the potatoes... they will be good, I promise. I know my way around a potato." you said, mashing them into the pot before adding butter and milk.

Flip walked up behind you as you worked hard to press the potatoes in the pan and bent down to rest his chin on your shoulder, wrapping one arm around your waist.

You smiled at his puppy dog expression watching you prepare dinner so intently.

He gently kissed your shoulder, then your neck, pulling you in closer to him and pressing his body against you.

"Okay, are you trying to make me fuck up the potatoes, too?" you said, giggling at the way his facial hair tickled your neck.

"Mmm... you look like a hot little housewife..." he said, raising his beer up and taking another swig.

Out of the corner of your eye, you glanced at the beer bottle in his hand and wondered how many he had today. Asking him was probably a bad idea, so you shrugged it off for now, and just enjoyed that he was coherent and in a good mood.

"Well I can assure you, I'm a much better cop than a housewife. I'm a terrible cook, I don't know what most of the buttons on the laundry machine do and I break at least one dish every time I wash them," you said, as Flip listened from behind you, leaning up against the counter.

You heard Flip sigh deeply behind you.

"What?" you asked over your shoulder.

"I've been thinking about reassigning you," Flip said, causing you to exchange your attention from dinner to him.

"Reassign me? To what? And why?" you rested the pan down, turning to face him and cross your arms, feeling defensive.

Flip shrugged casually. "It's not a big deal. We just need some help in the fraud unit and since homicide is covered pretty well, I thought moving you to fraud would give you some more experience."

"Fraud?? C'mon babe, you know that shit is boring as hell. Homicide gives me much more experience doing field work. You're asking me to sit behind a computer all day as opposed to doing something much more exciting," you bargained, feeling annoyed that he would intentionally put you in a unit that no detective ever willingly wanted to work in.

"Honey, it's not a bad thing. It would be good for you," he reasoned, holding his true motive behind the decision to himself. Putting you at a desk all day was one less thing to worry about. You would be much safer staying at the unit every day then out and about where god knows what could happen if Bridges had his eye on you.

You sighed in frustration, turning around and finishing the potatoes. Good thing they needed to be whipped because you were beating the hell out of them.

Dinner was served with a side of awkward tension as you both ate in silence  
Dinner was served with a side of awkward tension as you both ate in silence. Flip was on his umpteenth beer and you could sense he was becoming tipsier with each passing minute. You couldn't help but feel annoyed at both his response to move you to another department and his inability to get through one evening without drinking himself into a stupor after you had worked hard to make an albeit, overcooked, but thoughtful dinner.

Flip cleaned his plate, leaning back and wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Pretty good, babe."

Without a word you scooted your chair back and collected your plate and his, tossing them into the sink and turning on the faucet to begin washing them. Flip could tell you weren't over the idea of being reassigned.

"Are we still on this shit? You gonna be pissed at me all night?" He asked, gesturing with his hands as he sat and watched you grow even more irritated with him.

Focusing on scrubbing the plates you felt the heat boiling in your veins. "I thought you didn't want to hold me back? You said you didn't want anything to stand in my way this time," you rinsed your hands off and turned around, drying them with a tea towel. "And now look at you. You're doing exactly that."

Flip's face tensed before he chugged the rest of his beer, glaring at you from the table. He knew you had a point but he needed to keep out of harm's way until Bridges was found. He knew if he told you his true reason behind it, you'd be even more upset since you always argued that you could handle yourself. You were just as headstrong as he was.

But every time he had a nightmare and experienced your death, he grew even more on edge and protective of you.

You shook your head at him, watching him down the last of his beer.

Flip could sense your silent judgment of him and he roughly scooted his chair back, walking out of the kitchen, through the living room, and slamming the front door as he left.

Tears pooled in your eyes as your heart sank, hearing the engine of his truck roar and tires skid over the gravel of the driveway as he drove off. Now you were stuck worrying about him driving so irresponsibly to wherever he was headed. You should've just kept your mouth shut, you thought to yourself. But burying your emotions wasn't the answer either. Everything just felt so fucked up.

An hour later you and Sara were sitting in the living room with a fire burning in the fireplace, talking about everything from relationships, to life and of course, debating over movies.

"Kylo Ren did NOT turn back into Ben Solo! He is still Kylo! That kind of trauma doesn't just get erased," Sara argued, as you laughed. "What is everyone's fascination with Ben Solo? Kylo's rage is just so... fucking hot. A damaged boy is my weakness."

You smiled, looking into the flames. "I guess it's just the story of how Rey helped him see the light again. Reminded him of how beautiful life could be when you have hope," you couldn't help but think of your current situation with Flip. "Maybe she rescued him from spiraling into an even darker world," you finished, taking a sip of your wine and checking your phone for any missed messages or calls from Flip.

Still nothing.

"Yeah, well, Disney really fucked that up for everyone, didn't they?" Sara continued.

You scoffed. "Who's to say it wasn't J.J.'s call to kill him off?"

Sara glared at you over her wine glass. "Please. It was Disney. They would've never allowed a murderer like him to be redeemed."

You smirked at her.

"So how are you liking the loft? Do you need help with anything?" you asked, changing the subject.

"It's good. Got the walls painted. Not gagging anymore. I just have a few more boxes to move," she said, leaning back onto the sofa. "Jack's supposed to come stay tonight..." she trailed off.

You perked up. Sara never really talked too much about Jack, so you were curious if you could get her to share more. "Oh, yeah? How are things going with you guys?"

"Oh, yeah? How are things going with you guys?"   
She shrugged, gazing forward into the fire.

"We're fine. He's such a good boy, you know? Not at all what I'm used to.", she chuckled.

Normally, Sara would find herself with fuck boys before she realized they were fuck boys. Even though she hated the drama and overall dynamic, she was still drawn to the toxic bad boy nature of them.

She learned long ago that falling in love with such a man was not something she could endure again. So, she'd keep them at an arm's length and whenever she felt like she was getting too close, she'd shut it down and find someone new. You knew deep down she was hopeless romantic but she hid behind her dark exterior, never letting anyone see her true self for fear of more heartache. She was a tough cookie, but you knew she wanted to fall in love and be loved more than anything.

"Well, I think you guys are cute together," you said, giving her a nudge.

Sara smirked. "Ew, gross."

"Oh my God, will you just let yourself enjoy a good guy for once?" you snickered back at her. "You deserve a little reprieve from the bad ones."

She sipped her wine and looked over at you with a mischievous expression. "Well, at least he fucks like a bad boy."

You spit your wine back into your glass. "Um, excuse me?" you said, wiping your chin.

She shrugged in all sincerity. "Don't act like you haven't thought about it," she smirked, knowing enough pieces of your history with Jack to conclude a few things on her own. "With that body? I'm just confirming a theory you already had swirling around your dirty mind, sis."

You paused, feeling ashamed for even having past thoughts about Jack. Now that Sara was talking about it, you couldn't help your stupid brain from thinking about it again. A bad boy in the sheets? You recalled the time Jack insulated that you could have full control over him. A cold chill ran through your body and you shivered slightly.

Stop. Stop thinking about Jack and his stupid... hot... abs.

Sara's cell phone started ringing and it broke your daydream, thank god.

"Oh, speak of the devil. It's Jack," she said before answering.

Of course, it was.

She only said a few words to him before she was handing the phone over to you. Looking confused you took it from her and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, uh... I'm with Flip. I'm gonna need you to come and get him," Jack said, sounding a bit annoyed.

You found it odd that Jack would be with Flip. Why would Flip leave the house in a drunken fury and go see Jack of all people?

"Um, okay. What happened? Where are you guys?" You asked tossing the blanket off yourself and sitting up. Sara watched you in wonderment of what was going on. You put the call on speaker mode so you could both hear.

"We're at Cooper's Pub down the road from the station. Flip got in a fight with some random dude and he's in no condition to drive," Jack said, trying to silently tell you what happened so Flip wouldn't overhear. "He's wasted."

Your heart jumped into your throat. "Jesus. Um, okay, we'll be right there. Thanks for calling. Can you stay with him until we get there?" you asked, feeling your blood pressure rise.

"Yeah, of course," he said in a soft voice.

"Okay. Thanks."

You leaped up from the couch to put your shoes on   
You leaped up from the couch to put your shoes on. Sara stayed silent, not passing any judgment and instead just being there for you as you drove the five miles into town to pick up your sloppy drunk and apparently black-eyed fiance. You had a million things running through your head during the drive to get him. Flip wasn't one to ever get into physical altercations without cause. You questioned what set him off to actually get into a brawl with some stranger.

Pulling up to the bar, you saw Jack standing near the entrance and Flip sitting on the ground next to him with his back leaning up against the brick wall and his legs stretched out in front of him.

Getting out of the car and walking up, Jack greeted you with a nod and you studied them both. "Why are you guys out here, it's freezing."

"They kicked him out. Zero fight tolerance inside," Jack said, pulling Sara into his warm embrace. "Hey, you," he said sweetly to her.

Flip's head was bobbing back and forth as he sat on the cold concrete. You bent down beside him and touched his shoulder. "Hey baby, it's cold out here, let's get you home."

He groaned, letting his head tilt back and rest against the wall. You finally saw his full face and held your breath at the sight of his bloody nose and a black eye that was already starting to swell.

"Fuck me," you whispered to yourself, stunned at the amount of damage. "C'mon, big guy. Let's try to stand, okay?"

It took all three of you to help Flip off the ground and into the car.

You sat in the backseat with him, letting Sara drive while Jack rode shotgun. Flip moaned and groaned the whole time, drunkenly swaying between resting against the window and you.

"Tha-.... That...f-fuckin'...piece of...shit dude..." he started to slur but trailed off.

You patted his leg and nodded. "I know, baby."

"... he fuckin'...he looked just like 'em..." he slurred more, breathing heavily in between his whiskey laced words.

You furrowed your brow and saw Jack do the same from the front seat, appearing just as curious as you were.

"He looked like who?" you asked, rubbing Flip's arm, trying to encourage him to keep talking so you could figure what the hell happened. Who knows if a sober Flip would even remember in the morning.

He moaned in pain, sighing deeply and closing his eyes. "...fuck..."

"Flip? Baby?" you nudged his lifeless body but within seconds he started snoring.

Once inside the house, the three of you helped Flip to the couch, knowing that trying to get him up the stairs was not going to work.

"Thanks, guys. Sorry about this," you said, kneeling down on the floor next to Flip passed out on the couch.

"It's all good. I was surprised to see him out drinking. Usually, he does that here, doesn't he?" Jack said, glancing around the living room. Flip never really went out to the bars anymore ever since he had been drugged.

"Yeah, well. We kind of got into it earlier so he left," you said, brushing the loose strands of hair away from Flip's sleeping face.

Jack and Sara stood watching you stroke Flip's hair, waiting for any indication if you needed anything else from them.

"You guys can go, I can take it from here. Thanks for helping."

"Sure. We'll just be in the loft if you need anything." Sara said, holding Jack's hand and pulling him towards the door as he lingered a moment, a worried look on his face, before letting her lead him out of the house.

You moved to the end of the couch to remove Flip's ginormous boots before grabbing a blanket and covering him up. His breath was slow and heavy, chest rising and falling as he settled into a deep sleep. You found his hand, rough and scuffed up from the fight, and pulled it up to your lips for a kiss.

He was peaceful like this, finally resting and looking untroubled. You hated knowing what it took to get him to this point, wishing he could find some kind of content without having to suck down endless amounts of booze. What was going on in his head?

You wish you knew. 

*****************************************

Morning came quickly even though you were not blessed with a full night's sleep. You quietly brewed a pot of coffee with morning rays beaming in from the old windows as you waited at the kitchen table wearing one of Flip's flannels and a pair of warm leggings.

The sounds of Flip beginning to stir from the living room caught your attention. You got up and poured him the first cup from the carafe, and walked into the room with both hands clutching the warm mug. He was laying on his back, eyes tightly closed, hand rubbing his forehead which you were sure contained the biggest hangover known to man.

You stood over him, taking note of how swollen his eye had become overnight.

"Mornin' honey  
"Mornin' honey. I have some coffee for you," you said softly as to not create more noise against the pounding in his head. He peeked open one eye and saw you standing next to him and moaned.

"Thanks," he said in a deep, broken voice. He slowly but surely brought himself up to a sitting position on the couch, groaning in discomfort along the way.

"Fffffuck," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he took the mug from you. His whole body hurt.

His mind wandered to last night, trying to piece together everything that happened. He remembered leaving the house and driving to the pub. Everything else was just a blurry mess of faces, yelling, fists and anger. He could have sworn he saw one face in particular that sent him into a frenzy of emotions. Robert Bridges. But there was no way in hell Bridges would have been casually out at a bar when he's on the run from the FBI. Especially not Cooper's which is known to be where everyone from the station hangs out.

You sat on the couch next to him and ran your hand up and down the length of his back. "Do you need some Tylenol?" you asked, trying to find any other way to help him recover.

He hummed against the mug as he took a drink. "That's probably a good idea," he said in agreement while nodding and turning to look at you. "I'm sorry, baby," he replied, leaning back onto the couch. "I shouldn't have left like that."

You frowned, nodding along with him. "No, you shouldn't have. I'm sorry I pushed your buttons. I just... can't stand to see you like this." you said, placing your hand over his.

Flip stayed silent as he stared forward, realizing that his drinking was getting out of control. He wasn't even sure who he got in a fight with last night. He was lucky they didn't try to press charges.

"I can tell you're suffering," you said gently while stroking his hand. "You can talk to me if there's something on your mind."

Flip took a deep breath, head still pounding from the hangover and being beaten from the night before. He wanted to tell you everything; his fear of Bridges, his recurring nightmares of your death, his deep sadness for losing Rick, and the fact that he actually missed working with Ron and enduring his terrible jokes every day.

But something in him wanted to protect you from all of that. He didn't want to burden you with his fears, his sadness, or what he pictured to be his weaknesses. He was determined to be strong for you, to be your rock. Exposing you to his inner darkness felt too vulnerable for him. He needed to find other ways to cope and comfort himself outside of drinking.

"Can I get some of that Tylenol?" he said, dismissing the idea while rubbing your leg and taking another drink of his coffee.

It didn't surprise you that he refused to talk about his feelings. But it was still frustrating as hell.

"Sure, I'll be right back," you said, sighing as you got up to retrieve the medicine. There had to be some way to break down his wall. 

Flip spent the rest of the afternoon tinkering around in the garage, trying to find anything to keep himself busy on his day off. He saw something large in the corner that had a tarp draped over it and when he pulled it off, his eyes lit up. It was an older Honda VT750 motorcycle that looked to be from the 90's. He wondered why Hopper didn't take it with him because it looked to be in decent shape.

He rolled it out to the middle of the garage to inspect it further and realized that the carburetor needed to be disassembled and cleaned and the headlight needed to be replaced. After a quick call to Hop, he got the thumbs up to do whatever he wanted to the bike. Hopper never had the time to ride it anyway so he was more than happy to hear that Flip wanted to give it some love and get it back on the road. Fixing up an old motorcycle was exactly the kind of task Flip needed to keep his mind off of everything.

You were sitting in the living room, reading a book when you got a text from Flip. He had been out in the garage for a few hours now so you were curious what he was up to.

Hey, sweet thing. Come see what daddy found.

You smirked at the cute message and jumped to your feet, putting your coat on and heading across the yard to the garage. Upon opening the door you saw Flip straddling a motorcycle with a huge smile on his face. As if the man wasn't already gorgeous enough, now he looked even more scrumptious with metal, steel, and leather underneath him.

"Holy shit," were the first words that came out of your mouth as your jaw hit the floor.

"Nice, right?" he said, beaming as he gripped the handlebars.

"Does it run?" you asked walking up to touch the shiny bike.

"It's going to," he said, smacking the gas tank between his legs. "I called Hop and I'm gonna work on it so we can ride it once it warms up outside," he replied with enthusiasm.

You smiled, loving how excited Flip was about the whole thing  
You smiled, loving how excited Flip was about the whole thing. Butterflies hit you next imagining you and Flip riding a motorcycle through the countryside together.

You bit your lip, gaze heavy on your man looking fine as hell sitting on the powerhouse of a ride.

He glanced over at you and gave you a twisted grin.

"I know that look," he said in a deep, sexy tone.

Your face flushed, smiling at him. You ran your finger along the handlebar. "I like it."

"I can see that," he said, amused at your reaction.

He scanned you up and down and tensed his face, watching you act so innocent.

"Take your clothes off."

His voice was low and demanding.

You smirked. "It's cold in here," you whined, glancing around the garage.

By the look on his face, he wasn't playing any games.

"Do what I say," his hooded eyes peered at you with no mercy. "Daddy will keep you warm."

There was no escaping, he wanted you now and at this point you were willing to jump into a frozen lake for him.

You slowly removed your coat, shoes, and clothing. You tried to keep your bra and underwear on but he 'tsked' you so you removed those as well, hugging yourself from the bitter coldness in the garage.

Flip got off the parked bike and unbuttoned his shirt, walking up behind you. He removed his flannel and covered your frame, giving you some warmth as you put your arms through the sleeves, leaving it unbuttoned in the front. He pushed your back down so you were bent over the side of the bike with your ass peeking out under the shirt on display to him.

You heard him groan from behind you and the sound of his belt unbuckling. Flip stood shirtless, stroking himself to the sight of you bent over the motorcycle.

"Touch yourself," he ordered.

You glanced over your shoulder at him, seeing his sultry eyes locked on you as he rubbed his hand up and down his growing cock.

You lifted your hand to your mouth, wetting your fingers while keeping your eyes on him. His lips parted and his breath hitched at the mere sight of you sucking on your fingers. You dipped your hand down in between your legs and began caressing the folds.

"Fuck yeah," Flip exhaled, watching you intently as he pumped his fist faster, feeling his cock harden with each passing second. "Just like that, baby."

You circled the bundle of nerves, feeling the warmth of tingles from your core spread down to your toes. You moaned in delight hearing Flip's word of encouragement and heavy breaths.

He tugged your hips back, moved his knee in between your legs to spread them further apart before he dropped to the floor, and slid his tongue against your warm, wet center.

His facial hair tickled you but also sent tides of pleasure through your body.

You squirmed against him, loving how his full lips and tongue worked in harmony.

He hummed against you before removing his mouth and abruptly standing back up. He wiped your juices from his face with one hand and smacked your ass. "You always get so fucking wet for me, I love it."

Flip seized your waist and spun you around to face him, kissing you deeply. You stroked his hard cock poking out of his pants that were now totally undone and hanging loosely from his hips. He moaned against your touch, reaching up to hold your jaw.

"You're gonna ride me on that bike, babygirl. I know that's what your filthy mind wants," he whispered against your lips.

You smiled and bit your lip again.

He picked you up and you wrapped your legs around his waist as he carried you over to the bike, straddling it once more with you clutching onto him.

His hands roamed up your back as he settled onto the bike, him straddling it and you straddling him.

You kissed him, running your fingers through the locks of his soft, raven hair. You rolled your hips, feeling his hard cock in between your bodies, aching to be touched, to be inside you.

He pulled back from your kiss, spitting in his hand and leaning back to rub his cock as you lifted up, positioning yourselves just right. You felt the head of dick rubbing against your cunt and you lowered yourself slowly onto him.

Mutual moans of relief and satisfaction filled the air, feeling yourselves become one.

Gradually, you moved up and down, enjoying every solid inch of him throbbing inside you. His hands caressed up your thighs and gripped your ass before smacking one of the cheeks.

"Are you my dirty girl?" he claimed through parted lips, breath becoming heavier as you moved seductively on top of his lap.

"Yes baby," you answered, tracing your tongue lightly against his lips.

He groaned, gripping your hips with his hands and guiding you to go faster but you resisted against his strength, wanting... no needing to feel every part of him at a slower pace. You kissed the swollen bruise under his eye before trailing your lips down to meet his earlobe.

"Are you gonna be a good boy now?" you asked in a breathy whisper. You felt him tense under you, fingers digging into your hips.

A growl escaped from his chest. "Yes..." he hissed.

You drew your gaze back to his face and locked eyes with him, grinding yourself deeper into his lap.

"You love my cock, don't you?" he asked, tensing his jaw and biting his lip, looking down to watch your bodies come together.

"I do... I love it," you answered, slowly picking up your pace.

Flip cupped your breast in his hand and sucked on the sensitive skin, moaning against you as you let your head fall back and revel in the sensations.

You both jolted back to Earth when the garage door swung open.

Jack stood frozen in total shock and embarrassment. "Jesus! Sorry, sorry. I was just supposed to put the paint back. Fuck. I'm so sorry." He rambled, putting the paint can down by the door.

You and Flip had been holding each other close to shield your half-naked bodies.

"It's alright," Flip raised his hand to acknowledge him. "Just... go... now... please..."

Your heart was racing from being totally mortified. You could barely even look at Jack but you managed to peek over as he made eye contact with you right before the door closed.

Flip shifted under you, trying to create friction again so he wouldn't totally lose the moment or his erection. You sat motionless, trying to get your mind back to what you were enjoying only seconds earlier.

"C'mon baby... don't stop on me," he pleaded, grabbing your hips, urging you to fuck him.

You began moving on him again, struggling to get back into the mood. You hated how Jack took you out of the moment like that. You hated that he saw you half-naked. You hated that you made eye contact with him when Flip was still inside you. You felt disgusting.

You let Flip take control over the pace and rode him fast and hard like he wanted.

"Are you gonna cum with me?" he asked through labored breaths.

You tried your best but your peak never came back. So you did what anyone would have done for the man they love; you faked it, knowing he wouldn't let himself cum until you did.

You had never faked it with Flip before so the act of doing it felt so wrong but he believed it because all men do. He spilled his seed into you after your little "show" was over, grunting and groaning as he worked through his own orgasm.

Never in a million years did you think you'd have to fake an orgasm while fucking Flip on a motorcycle.

All the reason to do it again, you smirked to yourself.

When Jack was nowhere near, of course.

When Jack was nowhere near, of course


	5. Pumpkin

"What about this one?" Flip asked, holding up another flannel that was slightly different from the last.

"Honey, I highly doubt my dad is going to pass judgment on you based on the shirt you've decided to wear," you reassured him. "But, if you're asking me which one you look hotter in, it would be this one," you pulled a different flannel out of the closet. The classic red and black checkered pattern. 

"You always pick that one," he smirked, shaking his head.

"And I always will because it's superior," you said, searching the closet for your own outfit. 

"Be more worried about questions like... why do you think you're ready to get married? why did you propose to her before asking for my approval?... you know, typical dad questions," you said casually as you held up a dress to your frame, looking at yourself in the full-length mirror.

"He's gonna ask me those questions?" Flip seemed more anxious now. "Well, what the fuck do I say?" he urged, whisking on the flannel you picked out.

You undressed and stood in front of him in your bra and underwear, placing your hands on his chest. "You just be yourself, baby. Be yourself and he will love you," you said, perching up on your toes to kiss his lips. "But no matter what he thinks, I'm still going to marry you."

Flip stuck out his bottom lip in a pouting gesture. "... but my daddy issues need his approval."

You snickered at him even though it was a disheartening confession. Flip's own father passed away when he was a young teenager so he ended up becoming "the man" of the house early in life, taking care of his mother and younger sister. He worked odd jobs here and there after school, mostly helping local farmers with their land and doing some construction. It was how he acquired his strong handyman skills that had been paying off since you moved into Hopper's place. Flip had already managed to fix drywall damage in the living room and update the bathroom. 

Your relationship with your father was generally good. It took him years to realize that you were an adult and didn't need his approval or opinion on matters anymore, so instead, he tried to respect you as an individual and offered advice from time to time. He couldn't help but feel protective over you since your mother abandoned the two of you when you were still a toddler. She took off with some new love she found and never turned back. You don't remember her, but you've seen pictures and despise how much the two of you look alike.

Flip remained nervously quiet on the car ride to the restaurant and you tried your best to ease his mind. 

"You know I was thinking, maybe a fall wedding...?" you asked him, trying to change the subject to something happy. "Something outside, with all the pretty colors from the leaves... what do you think?" 

"That sounds nice," he said nodding, eyes on the road.

"I still need to ask Sara to be my maid of honor. I mean, I'm sure she knows the title is hers, but I should make it official. Have you asked anyone to be your best man yet?"

A small chuckle came from him. "Nope. Haven't even thought that far," he leaned up to grab the cigarette pack from the dash and pulled one out. "Suppose I should call Ron about it," he flicked the zippo open and lit the cigarette, whisking it shut abruptly after. "That kind of shit is right up his alley, he would be fucking delighted," he said exhaling smoke from his nose and smiling.

"Aww, Ron and Sara by our side. I love it," you drew his hand up to your lips and kissed it. He looked over and gave you a sweet grin, grasping your thigh with his large hand.

Walking up to the restaurant, Flip moved his palm from the small of your back and clutched your hand. You had never seen him so nervous over anything and a part of your heart ached but it was also the cutest thing to see. 

The host led you both to a table where your dad was already seated alone.

You smiled, releasing your hold on Flip so you could greet your dad with a hug. "Hey, Dad!" 

He stood and looked at you with proud eyes. "Pumpkin!" he wrapped his arms around you and squeezed before his gaze went to Flip. 

You released him and turned, grabbing Flip's hand again and pulling him closer. "Dad... this is Flip," you said, face beaming and heart feeling full.

Flip held his free hand out while still holding your hand with the other. Your dad gave him a once over, sizing him up before reaching over to clasp his hand tight and shake. "Flip! Good to finally meet you."

Flip smiled back, "It's an honor to meet you, sir."

"Call me Joe," Your dad grasped their adjoining handshake with his other hand in a friendly manner. "Jesus, son, you are built like a house," he said with a smirk.

Flip's face lit up as he smiled from ear to ear while everyone took their seats.

It came as no surprise to you that your dad warmed up to Flip pretty quickly. It wasn't until after dinner, while the three of you were enjoying the rest of the bottle of wine when your dad started asking you questions about your job.

"So how are things with this new arrangement at work? You aren't taking advantage of Flip here, are ya?" your dad taunted as if you'd leverage your fiancee position to get special treatment. 

If he only knew how the two of you deal with disagreements at work.

"Actually, I think he's harder on me than the rest of the staff," you moved your eyes to Flip, giving him a sassy grin. 

"Is that right?" Joe said, seeming impressed. 

Flip cleared his throat and perked up. "Well, I just think you're a great detective and I want to see you do your best, is all," he gestured with his hands before taking a sip of wine.

"Right. And that's why I'm being moved to... the fraud unit," you couldn't help your smart mouth.

"Fraud?" your dad lifted his brows. "Why do you want to work in fraud?" he genuinely asked, knowing that you've always been passionate about working in homicide.

Flip's jaw tensed, knowing you were about to call him out so he prepared himself.

You gave him an apologetic look, feeling ashamed for even saying anything.

"Well... after Flip and I talked, he... or we... decided it was best for my career to try something new for a bit," you eyed Flip and saw a vague grin appear on his face. He reached his hand over to your lap under the table and squeezed your inner thigh as an unspoken thank you.

"She'll be great in fraud," Flip suggested, smiling at Joe. "And once that SOB Bridges is put away, things will finally get back to normal."

You frowned, finding it odd that Flip would connect your assignment to the fact Bridges hasn't been caught yet. 

The waitress came back and occupied your dad for a moment while you leaned over to whisper in Flip's ear. "Is that why you're moving me? Because of Bridges?"

Flip adjusted his posture in his chair and pressed his lips together, feeling careless for saying anything about it.

"... let's talk about it later, okay?" he said, not wanting to get into a heated discussion in front of your dad.

You sighed but figured that was best left as a private conversation. 

"I'll be right back, I just need to use the restroom," you said, pushing your chair back and placing a hand on Flip's shoulder as you stood.

Flip and your dad were left at the table alone in a brief muteness.

"Well, son. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed to learn that y'all got engaged so quickly. Before you and I even had a chance to meet," Joe remarked, leaning back into his chair as Flip began to tense, feeling the true interrogation coming. "But after getting to know you a little bit more, I believe you're a fine man. I still think this whole wedding thing is a bit rushed, but she's stubborn as hell and when she wants something, I can't stand in her way."

Flip nodded and swallowed hard, letting Joe speak his mind.

"She told me that your father passed away when you were a teenager. I'm sorry to hear that, it must have been rough on you and your mother," he said, leaning in on the table and resting on his forearms. 

Flip's chest tightened, not expecting that Joe would bring up his father. He mentally prepared himself for everything except that.

"How did he pass, if you don't mind me asking?"

Flip clutched his wine glass, feeling uneasy about the answer but not wanting to lie.

"Alcoholism."

Joe frowned, glancing down at Flip's empty wine glass then his own. 

"I see. Again, I'm sorry."

Flip's heart started to sink knowing that Joe was most likely worried to some extent that Flip would follow in his father's footsteps someday. Alcohol had always been apart of Flip's life, but he tried to keep it managed and only drank during social events or if he had a bad day. Unfortunately, those bad days had become a regular occurrence as of lately.

You came back to the table and sat down, noticing the somber vibe at the table.

"Geez, who died while I was gone?" 

Your stupid fucking mouth.

Flip seemed just as quiet on the car ride back home and you wondered what was discussed at the table for the whole five minutes you had been gone.

You ran your hand over his thigh as he drove. "Hey, baby. You okay?"

He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and rested his hand on yours.

"Yeah. I'm okay," he answered, eyes dead ahead.

"Dad liked you," you assured him. "I can tell. You definitely made a good impression."

Flip exhaled deeply, puffing his cheeks in the process.

"Yeah, he's nice. Good man," he replied.

It was driving you mad that there was something bothering him but he kept brushing it off. 

"Honey, will you pull over?"

Flip looked over and pinched his brow. "What?.. why?"

"Just pull over, please," you replied, a bit more sternly this time.

Flip pulled the truck over to the side of the gravel road and put it in park, leaving the engine running. You were only a few miles away from home but figured as long as you were both stuck in such close proximity, he'd have to talk eventually since there was nowhere for him to go.

"What do I gotta do to get you to talk to me about what's been on your mind?" you asked calmly, reaching over to stroke his hair with your hand.

Flip smirked, rubbing his hand up and down your thigh. "Baby, noth-..." he started to object that nothing was wrong but you stopped him by moving your hand from his hair to cover his mouth.

You leaned back into the seat, lifting your hips up, reaching under your dress, and pulling your panties down.

Flip watched you intently, aroused at your unexpected movements.

You bunched your panties up and stuffed them into the front shirt pocket on his chest as he gave you a devilish grin.

"If you tell me what's been bothering you, then I'll keep going..." you insinuated as you brush your hand against his belt. 

Holding sex hostage for information seemed like the only trick you had left up your sleeve.

Flip swallowed, his gaze searching you up and down before scooting to the middle of the bench seat to get closer. He glanced ahead and behind the truck.

"You really wanna do this here when anyone could drive by and see?" he asked, hand roaming all over your thigh as he licked his lips. 

You straddled his lap and hovered your mouth dangerously close to his. It was an old country road so you didn't expect too much traffic. 

Answering his question, you gingerly began to unbuckle his belt, taking your time as you waited for him to speak.

"Go ahead, daddy. Talk to me..."

Both his hands slid up your thighs slowly, his breath becoming heavy.

He took a deep inhale. "I've been having these dreams about you..." he exhaled as he spoke.

You hummed to encourage him to keep going as you fully unbuckled his belt and gradually moved to his button and zipper.

"...not, uhm... not good dreams. Nightmares..." he struggled, biting his lip and gazing down at your hands.

A twinge in your heart started to grow and you kissed his forehead. His hands moved to grasp your ass as you unzipped his pants.

"That's good, baby... keep going..." you whispered, taking your time before reaching in and pulling him free.

He was breathing heavily through his nose as he closed his eyes and let his head fall back to rest.

"...I see you...and I see her... and the gun goes off..." his breath hitched when your hand came in contact with his hard cock. You reached your other hand up to run your fingers through his hair.

He paused briefly as you began to stroke him, letting himself enjoy the sensation of your soft hand against him.

"... what else?..." you asked with your lips near his ear.

He struggled again, groaning against you.

"I see... your blood. I can taste it. It's all over me... my face, my chest..."

You swallowed at his horrifying confession of what he's been dealing with at night, trying to focus on stroking him to keep up your side of the deal. You began to understand that's why he's been so worried about Bridges. If he's been witnessing your death night after night he must be tortured with the mental idea of Bridges killing you like Flip killed Mandy.

Feeling satisfied with the knowledge of what's been on his mind, you leaned back, spit in your hand, and rubbed the head of his cock before lifting up and slowly lowering yourself onto him.

He moaned in relief, opening his eyes and looking down, watching you take his fully hard cock so well.

Once you were entirely seated in his lap, you grasped the sides of his face and kissed him deeply, feeling the roughness of his facial hair scratch against your chin and lips.

You raised your hips up then pushed down again, freeing the kiss and resting your forehead against his. Flip's hands caressed your exposed thighs wildly, momentarily grabbing at your curves and squeezing.

"I can't lose you," he murmured in between his heavy breathing.

You stroked his hair, gazing into his worrisome eyes. "You won't, baby. I won't let that happen."

You tried to comfort him with empty words, knowing that if Bridges really wanted to kill you, he probably could.

"I love you," you said softly, picking your pace up.

Flip gasped through his clenched teeth.

"I love you so fucking much."

*********************************

The next morning you and Flip arrived to work together, hand in hand until he reached his office and gave you a quick kiss on the knuckle before you released him to walk over to your desk. Jack was already sitting at his computer and he peeked up just in time to witness the cute exchange.

You noticed he appeared annoyed, more so than usual. Things had been awkward, obviously, since he walked in on you and Flip in the garage a week ago but you tried to erase the whole image from your mind without forgetting all the steamy parts leading up to it.

"Hey. Good morning," you said, trying not to sound too perky. 

"Mornin'," he said, sighing as he averted his eyes to the computer screen in front of him.

You placed your bag down on your desk and glanced over towards Flip's office. He was leaned back in his chair with his eyes already on you as he smiled through the window. 

Today was the day that he would announce your transfer to the fraud unit. Jack wasn't aware yet so you worried it was going to be a rough day for everyone. You considered giving him a heads up before the announcement so he wouldn't be caught off guard.

"Hey, you wanna come follow me to the breakroom for a refill?" you asked, holding up your empty mug and gesturing towards his in front of him.

"Uh, sure," he said, grabbing his cup and following you.

Flip watched the two of you walk to the breakroom together. Reassigning you to another unit came with other perks, one being that Jack wouldn't be your partner anymore. He never would forget how Jack tried to swoop in and take his spot with you but given his position at work, he tolerated him. Although he was happy to see him moving on with Sara, he still kept a close eye on him. Something about Jack just rubbed him the wrong way.

You pulled the carafe out and filled up Jack's mug first before your own. Glancing around quickly you noticed it was just the two of you in the breakroom so you figured now was as good of a time as any.

"Hey, so I just wanted to let you know about some changes that are going to be announced today during our staff meeting. I didn't want you to be taken by surprise or anything, but I've decided to move to the fraud unit," you figured phrasing in a way that sounds more like your decision was best since Jack already had his suspicions about Flip assigning him a different partner out of pure resentment. 

Jack leaned up against the counter and gave you a shocked expression.

"Really??... I mean... fraud?? That's what you want to do?" he asked quizzically. 

You shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but actually it would give me some good experience in another field for a bit. It's like a ... career growth thing."

Jack stared at you, unimpressed.

"A career growth thing?" he mocked.

"Yeah."

He sighed deeply, placing his mug down on the counter and facing you. "A certain someone wouldn't have anything to do with this out-of-the-blue career growth thing, would he?"

You stirred the cream and sugar into your coffee and looked up at him.

"No," you took a sip and paused as you swallowed. "No, not at all. I simply decided it myself and asked his opinion, which he is supportive of it, so... I decided that I wanted to be reassigned as soon as possible and just try it out for a little bit..."

Jack watched you carefully as you rambled on.

"You're a terrible liar," Jack replied, turning back to lean on the counter. "I knew this would happen," he said with defeat.

"Look, I'm sure whoever replaces me as your partner will be fine. Probably even better with more experience. And maybe you won't have to take a bullet for them," you tried to joke, seeing a slight smirk on his face.

"On a brighter note, Sara is coming in today to meet me for lunch. I'm asking her to be my maid of honor."

Jack nodded along, staying quiet.

"How are things going with you guys?"

"Good. I haven't seen her for a few days... since... well... you know," he lifted his brow and took a sip. You knew what he was referring to and your face flushed with embarrassment. 

"Oh. Right... that."

There was a brief awkward silence. Jack's gaze lingered on your body.

"I can't blame the guy. I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off you, either."

You froze in shock at the blatant attempt to flirt with you so inappropriately. 

"Uhm... Jack...you're crossing a line, don't you think?"

He looked at you with heavy eyes.

"Yeah. Maybe I am," he said in a smug tone before turning to leave. 

You stood there in disgust, thinking about how he would just say that to you while dating your best friend. All of your ideas about him being "a good guy" went flying out the window.

Maybe he fucks like a bad boy because he is one.

The announcement about your reassignment came shortly after, with Jack looking less than thrilled by the news even though you already gave him a heads up. He was certainly putting on a show for Flip to attest his disapproval. At this point, you were glad to be moving to another unit if anything to avoid drama.

You sat through lunch with Sara contemplating whether or not to tell her about the comment Jack made to you only hours prior. You didn't want to blow anything out of proportion and definitely didn't want to ruin anything for her. Plus, this was supposed to be a happy lunch date because you were going to officially ask her to be your maid of honor.

"So, I have a request," you said leaning across the table as if you were about to tell her a secret. "I need you to be my maid of honor. You know, for that whole wedding thing I'm doing," you chuckled. 

Sara smiled, "God, finally! I've already been planning your bachelorette party so now I can actually start booking things," she said, lifting her phone up to check the calendar. "Did you guys decide on a date?"

"Whoa, whoa... I don't want anything big or crazy. Just a chill night is fine," you suggested. "No official date yet, but probably sometime in the fall."

Sara peeked up at you from her phone. "Um... if I'm the maid of honor, which you just said I am, then whatever I plan for the bachelorette party goes and you're gonna have a great fucking time," she replied, smiling while typing things into her phone.

You rolled your eyes at her, knowing that whatever she had in mind most likely involved lots of booze, dancing, and strippers.

Sara growled. "Ughhh... Jack. Leave me alone," she said to herself, ignoring his incoming text.

The pit in your stomach grew hearing her mention his name.

"Are you guys okay?" you casually asked.

"Yeah, I guess. He's just a little clingy, you know? I'm just not used to that. Usually, it's me chasing the dick like an idiot," she said, scrolling through her phone. "He told me he walked in on you guys fucking the other day," she smirked.

You sighed and shook your head.

"Well, I'm just glad he didn't see much. I mean, I had on Flip's shirt, at least," you shrugged.

"He saw tits and ass," she replied, lifting her brows and taking a drink of her water.

"What?!? He did?? And he told you?" 

Sara started laughing at your embarrassment. A cold chill ran through your body causing you to shiver.

"Oh, calm down. It's just sex," she said, waving her hand to dismiss your distress.

Now the thought of Jack's comment from earlier made you even more squeamish. He saw parts of your naked body and thought to himself "I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off her either."

You decided if he said or did anything else that pushed boundaries, you'd have to say something to Sara. If you told Flip, he'd probably beat the shit out of him and lose his job. 

********************************

Later that evening you and Flip had just finished dinner and Flip prepared a fire in the living room as you made some popcorn for a movie. A knock on the front door caused Flip perk up and peek out the window. He walked over and answered seeing Sara and Jack standing at the doorstep.

"Hey, guys, what's up?"

Sara stepped inside from the cold and crossed her arms. "Just wondering if you guys wanted to watch a movie with us?" Jack stood behind Sara and forced a grin at Flip.

You walked out of the kitchen with the popcorn in hand. "Funny you should mention, we are actually getting ready to do that. Come on in," you said, smiling at Sara then averting your eyes away from Jack.

"Okay... sure... come on in," Flip said, trying to act cool about it but secretly hating the idea.

"Jack, can I get you a beer?" Flip asked as he walked into the kitchen to grab one for himself. Thankfully it was his first of the night and not his tenth. 

"Sure, thanks."

"Cool. Sara, you want one?"

"Beer? No. Wine? Yes," she said looking over at you.

You handed her the bowl of popcorn and got up to grab the wine from the kitchen.

You bumped into Flip as you reached to the top cabinet to grab two wine glasses. Flip's hand squeezed your ass and you giggled.

"I was hoping to have you all to myself tonight," he whispered in your ear from behind you.

"I thought you wanted to watch a movie, stud muffin," you pushed your backside into his crotch and wiggled, hearing him growl in response.

"Newsflash, pumpkin. When daddy says he wants to watch a movie, it means he wants to get down and dirty in the living room," he teased.

You laughed, "Could you not call me pumpkin, please. Feels so wrong," you replied, nudging him knowing it was your dad's nickname for you.

Flip snickered, "I know, that's what makes it so fun."

Rolling your eyes, you grabbed both glasses of wine and pushed past him, heading into the living room, giving a glass to Sara.

Flip sat in the oversized plush chair, patting his lap for you to snuggle on him so Jack and Sara could have the couch to themselves. He wrapped an arm around you, hand resting on your thigh as you curled up in his lap. He caressed your leg, as he normally does when you cuddle and you noticed Jack's gaze following his hand. You shifted your body and grabbed a throw blanket to cover yourself while giving Jack a warning look.

About twenty minutes into the movie you felt Flip's hand start to roam to new places on your body under the blanket. You turned your gaze to him and he grinned slightly, eyes never leaving the TV as if he wasn't up to anything naughty.

You felt the button on your jeans come undone.

"Are you kidding me, Zimmerman?" you quietly whispered in his ear. Sara and Jack were snuggled up on the couch together looking totally oblivious as they watched the movie. 

He frowned, giving you an innocent shrug like he didn't know what you were talking about. 

A mischievous grin grew on his face as he slowly unzipped your jeans trying to muffle the sound with the noise of the TV.

Realizing he needed a better angle, he shifted under you, making it look like he just needed to stretch for a second as he positioned you differently on his lap, shoving his hand into your pants at the same time.

You covered your mouth with your hand by impulse reaction, totally surprised by the swiftness of it all. Apparently, this is was happening and nothing was going to stop him.

Sara glanced over at you and you gave her a keen grin, moving your eyes back to the TV, trying to act normal and not like Flip's hand was cupping your sex as his digits made tiny movements against your folds. 

Of course it wasn't. That would be crazy.

Oh. But it was.

He pushed his middle finger into your soft cunt gradually, little by little, as you held your breath. His face progressed from playful to serious as he focused his eyes on the TV, trying to contain the urge to pull his hand away and suck on his finger to taste you. You felt his chest rising and falling largely, jaw clenched and breath passing in and out of his nose. 

He pulled his finger back, then forward, coating his digit with your growing wetness. 

You turned your gaze to him and he locked eyes with you. Both of you silently studying each other's efforts to keep your composure through gritted teeth and concealed panting.

The buzzing of Flip's phone from his shirt pocket surprised you both, causing his movements to stop and both of you releasing a large exhale.

"Goddamit," Flip sighed, removing his hand from you as you adjusted yourself. He pulled his phone out, raising his finger to his mouth for a quick taste as he looked at his phone screen to see who it was. 

"Ron, what's up, buddy?" 

"You want the good news or bad news first?"

"What do you think," Flip said with a sigh.

"You sittin' down?" Ron asked. "'Cause you need to be."

Flip's hand gripped your love handle as he sat up straighter, trying to prepare himself for whatever bad news Ron had.

"What is it..."

Ron puffed his chest, "I'm standing here, watching your cabin burn to the ground."

You felt Flip tense under you and attempt to stand so you removed yourself from his lap so he could. You reached over to pause the movie and waited patiently on the couch with Sara and Jack. Sara noticed your pants being undone and gave you a smirk followed by her famous eye-roll.

"What...?" Flip's tone was that of shock.

"I'm sorry, man," Ron continued. "Hop's okay, he's helping the guys put it out now, but... there ain't gonna be anything left."

Flip ran his hand through his hair, "Jesus Christ. What the fuck happened??"

"I wish I knew. Hop's on it, so hopefully, I'll have more details soon," Ron said, actively watching the flames engulf the house. 

"Shit," Flip reached for his cigarettes and lit one as he sat back down. 

"Ready for some good news, I take it?"

Flip rubbed his forehead, elbows resting on his knees. "Better be great news."

"Got your voicemail. And I'd be honored to be your best man! I'll be the best, best man you could ever dream of, you won't regret it," Ron gushed, feeling elated by the request.

Flip couldn't help but smile with a sigh at Ron's overly enthusiastic answer.

"And I'll tell you what, I'm gonna start my best man duties now by helping Hop figure out what the hell happened here."

Flip blew smoke out from his nose. "Thanks, man. Just keep me posted."


	6. Found you

His hips rolled into you methodically, with ease and seduction. His rigid muscles flexing with every thrust as you arched your body under him, reveling in the sensation of being one with him.

The weight of Flip ontop of you in the mornings didn't happen frequently enough in your opinion. You were usually rushing to get ready for work, make coffee and throw together a quick breakfast. But today was different, and it seemed Flip was more than willing to let your tardiness go unnoticed.

"God damn, you feel so fucking good..." he moaned in between in his heavy breaths buried into the nook of your neck, pushing in and out slowly to feel every part of your soft, waking body.

"Mmmm... I love when you fuck me like this..." you replied, leaning your head back, pushing against the bunched up pillow underneath. Your hands gripping his solid back, feeling every element of his body working together to plunge deep into you. Something about how big and powerful he was above you, grinding into your core, needing you so desperately made you feel like the most desirable person on the planet.

"Like what, baby? In the morning?" he asked, groaning against your ear, causing tingles to spread through your shoulder and down your spine. You giggled.

"Slow like this... like you're making love to me," you whispered back into his ear. He lifted his gaze to meet yours and slowly stopped the rocking of his hips, still keeping himself deep inside you.

"I'm always making love to you, silly ass," his hand stroked your hair as he smirked. "No matter how fast or slow I am..." he began moving his hips again, deliberately and with purpose. He pushed himself forward as deep as he could with a grunt and paused, jaw slacked as he watched your face. You felt him hit your cervix and you winced. "No matter how deep.... or painful..." he groaned, pulling back and easing the sharpness. "It's all out of love," he smiled and bit his bottom lip before advancing himself up on his hands so he could gaze down at your body, taking his thick cock so well.

You reached up to run your fingers through his smooth locks falling forward over his eyes.

"I want you to cum inside me," you whimpered, brushing his hair away from his face. "Can you do that for me, daddy? Can you fill me up?" you rocked your hips up to meet his with every push, earning you a deep growl from his chest.

"Mmmhmm..." he agreed, jaw clenched as he picked up his pace, concentrated solely on your sex.

"Are you gonna cum for me? I wanna feel that pussy cum..." he drove into you faster, heat swimming through your bodies as they moved in harmony together. Excitement and pleasure swarmed your insides, feeling his encouragement take over.

"Yes... I want to so bad... please... just like that..."

Your pleading sent him into overdrive and he moved his gaze to your face, bringing a hand up to cover your throat as he leaned down to touch his lips against yours.

"You're such a good girl for me..." he whispered, hips thrusting against you as he held your gaze steady. "Say please again..."

You moaned against his lips. "Please, daddy....give it to me..."

He pressed his lips against yours, kissing you frantically as he pumped his massive cock into you faster and faster. You felt your climax rising more with each passing second. He pulled his lips away and you gasped for breath.

"Shhhit... you're gonna make explode so fucking hard, baby... I can feel it..." his voice faltered as he kept his wild pace on you.

Your walls began to contract, peak hitting you hard as you squeezed your legs around his hips, throwing your head back, eyes falling shut and halting your breath as it rolled through you.

"Mmm FUCK.... yes, that's it baby, cum on my cock..."

His words made you howl into the open air, pure heat radiating from both your bodies as Flip couldn't hold back anymore and he released himself inside you only seconds later.

Moans, groans, and incoherent words echoed through the room as you both stayed high on each other's bodies, letting yourself remain in ecstasy for as long as possible. Flip carefully pulled out and collapsed on the bed beside you, completely breathless with beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Holy shit, that was great," he exhaled, still trying to find a steady breath.

"Yes it was, Chief," you said with a smirk, making Flip chuckle.

You grabbed your phone to check the time. "Shit, we better get cleaned up and go."

Flip reached over and took your phone, pretending to call your boss and be you. "Hey Chief looks like I'm gonna be late today." he held up his own phone to his other ear. "Oh. Okay. Why's that?" he switched back to your phone. "I was gettin' my pussy pounded by you."

You smacked him as he let out a warm laugh. "You're such a dork!" You sat up in bed. "I'll go get the shower ready for us if you go make coffee," you suggested, leaning over to kiss him.

"Okay, but don't wash your hair first. I wanna do it," he replied, kissing you back on the lips quickly before leaping out of bed to make coffee naked.

You stood under the warm stream, letting it soothe your muscles as you relaxed into yourself. Your heart smiled, feeling true happiness from being able to start your day with a hearty bowl of Flip. It was a dream come true and it took so much heartache and frustration to finally get here. Life was still difficult and you still had battles to overcome, but you felt comforted knowing that you'd work through it all together.

Anything seemed possible with Flip by your side.

You reached for the bottle of body wash when you felt a sharp pain in your shoulder followed by extreme tingles. You lost strength in your hand and dropped the full bottle onto your toe. You yelped from the pain, trying to grab a hold of the shower curtain and your strength failed you again, causing you to slip and come crashing down onto the hard surface below. The edge of the tub hit the side of your cheek, earning another cry from you and several curse words.

"FLIP!" you yelled, hearing his loud footsteps racing upstairs.

You helplessly rested on the floor of the tub, water falling on you from above as you cradled your paralyzed arm, trying to wrap your head around what just happened.

Flip stormed into the bathroom. "What happened?! Are you alright?" He knelt down and cupped your face, seeing a red mark on your cheek form. "Holy fuck..."

"I - I don't know. I grabbed the body wash and all of a sudden... I couldn't hold it... my whole arm, like... stopped working," you answered, starting to feel tears in your eyes. "Then I grabbed the curtain for balance like an idiot and slipped."

Flip reached down to examine your arm. "This arm?" he asked and you nodded. His eyes moved up to look at the scar from your gun wound. He brushed his fingers across it. "It's on the same side as this... maybe you have some nerve damage."

He helped you up and out of the shower, wrapping a towel around you and guiding you to sit the closed lid of the toilet. He studied your face as the mark started to swell. "Well, that's definitely gonna bruise. Stay here, I'm getting ice." He started to leave. "Just.. don't move." he insisted before rushing downstairs to retrieve a makeshift ice pack.

You looked down at your hand, opening and closing your fist, realizing that your strength was slowly but surely coming back and the tingling wasn't as sharp anymore. Sounds like you'll be calling your doctor today.

Flip returned with an ice pack and knelt down in front of you, carefully bringing it up to your sore cheek. You hissed when it made initial contact, gently taking it from him and holding it yourself to find the right spot.

Flip swallowed, putting his focus back down to your hand, and instructed you to do some grip testing against his own hand and wrist. He seemed concerned, watching you struggle to apply pressure against him.

He caressed your arm and looked up at you. "You'll call the doctor today, right?"

You assured him you would.

He bit his lip and nodded. "Guess you'll have to give me hand jobs with your left hand now," he gave you a mischievous grin, trying to lighten the mood so he could see you smile. You grimaced from the pain of laughing and he pouted. "I'm sorry, honey." He pulled your numb hand up and kissed it. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

******************************************************  
******************************************************

Ron strolled into Hopper's office, dropping a file of documents on his desk, causing Hopper to put his call on hold. "Whatcha find for me?"

"There's no evidence whatsoever of arson. If anything, we found some outdated wiring that could have caused it. But... I got in contact with the FBI agent who's actively tracking Robert Bridges and he was traced 100 miles south of here only hours after the fire was called in."

Hopper sighed deeply and nodded, returning his attention back to his call. "Yeah. Yeah, hey, let me call you back in here in about ten minutes, I got a, uh - priority that just came up. Alright." he hung up the phone and glanced up at Ron.

"Well, isn't that just a fucking coincidence," Hopper said with sarcasm  
"Well, isn't that just a fucking coincidence," Hopper said with sarcasm. "Why hasn't the FBI caught this piece of shit, yet? Did they happen to tell you why they're not doing their job?" He got up and walked out of his office to get more coffee.

Ron smirked, following behind him. "No, I didn't rebuke the FBI agent about doing their job. Seems a little above my pay grade. And furthermore, I don't need to be on a federal agency shit list."

Hopper pulled the carafe out and refreshed his mug. "Feel like we gotta do everything ourselves around here." He said, taking a sip before continuing his rant. "You know, I was never this busy back in Salt Lake. I could actually come in, have an entire cup of hot coffee before my phone even rang. But now? I can't even take a shit in peace without someone knocking on the goddamn stall door."

Another officer rounded the corner into the break room. "Hey, Chief?"

"What!" Hopper shouted, throwing his arm up in a tangent.

"You're gonna wanna take this call. Someone is claiming to have intel on the Bridges case."

Hopper walked back into his office, picked up the phone, and pushed the extension button.

"You've got Jim Hopper."

He heard some static and someone breathing.

"Hello?" he said, seeming impatient.

A female's voice broke the dead air.

"I have information on Robert Bridges," her voice was soft and a bit shaky. Hopper slowly sat down in his chair, feeling like he's heard the voice before but unable to pinpoint who it belonged to.

"Okay. I'm ready," he said, patting his chest for a pen but finding one on the desk. Ron stood in the doorway waiting to understand what was being shared.

"I know he was involved with Rick Solomon's death," she replied quietly.

Hopper perked up at Ron. "How do you know that?" he asked in a soft voice, trying to keep the conversation calm since she appeared to be frightened.

She paused for a brief moment.

"Because he told me," her voice began to waver as if she was holding back a sob.

Hopper exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair, beginning to wonder how the person on the other end was affiliated to Bridges. He had an idea but wasn't totally sure.

"He told you? Why would he share that with you?" he inquired, trying to understand the relationship.

She paused again, not wanting to give away her identity.

Hopper held the receiver to his ear, patiently waiting for her answer but knowing she wasn't going to say it.

"Donna? Is that you?" he whispered.

The line went dead immediately.

Hopper hung up the phone and tapped his pen on his desk, glancing up at Ron.

"I think that was his wife," he said, standing back up and crossing his arms. "And it sounds like we have a murderer on the run now. Maybe that will entice the FBI to work a little harder."

Ron frowned and nodded, knowing he would need to deliver the news to Flip.

Ron frowned and nodded, knowing he would need to deliver the news to Flip

**************************************************

It took some convincing you, but Flip insisted that you stay home from work that day to rest, call the doctor and keep ice on your swollen face. Sara had the day off so she kept you company which gave Flip confidence knowing that you wouldn't be alone.

You spent most of the morning and afternoon drinking coffee with her and binge-watching your favorite shows on Netflix. The doctor was able to get you on schedule for tomorrow so hopefully, you could figure out what the hell was happening with your body. A part of you worried it would be a long term condition and you'd have to deal with losing your strength out of nowhere until the end of time. That would most likely disqualify you from several things at work. If you couldn't hold and aim a rifle properly then you wouldn't be able to do much in law enforcement besides paperwork.

Sara was scrolling through her email when she let out a chuckle. "Hell yes! Oh my god... your bachelorette party is going to be WILD! I'm so freaking excited!"

You looked over at her and nudged her leg. "Hey, lady, I told you nothing crazy."

Sara rolled her eyes, "blah, blah, blah..." she replied with annoyance. "I promise you will love it. Just let me handle the details and you'll be pleasantly surprised my friend." she boasted.

Within seconds an unknown object came crashing through the living room window causing you both to shield your heads with your arms. You reacted quickly by telling Sara to get on the floor as you hurried over to grab your pistol from its hostler.

You held the gun firmly in your right hand, supported by your left as you tried peeking out the window by the front door. Your heart was racing, trying to remain calm yet totally alert at the same time. You didn't see any movement from the front of the house so you silently motioned to Sara to stay on the floor as you crept to the backdoor located in the kitchen. You saw a figure running away through the wooded area in the backyard so you opened the backdoor and fired towards them, completely missing due to your limited strength.

You scanned the rest of the backyard and surrounding areas but didn't see anyone else.

Once you felt confident that the trespasser was gone you walked back into the living room and checked on Sara.

"You okay?" you asked.

"I mean, yeah but I about pissed my pants. What the fuck was that?" she asked, raising up from the floor.

You walked over to the broken window and saw a brick resting on the floor. You picked it up and saw something written on it.

Found you

Your mind immediately went to Bridges. He must have been looking all over Colorado Springs for you and Flip before realizing you both relocated. Your heart felt like it was going to beat out of your chest from anxiety and now you had to call Flip and tell him which was also a concern. You knew this would just cause him even more stress.

********************************************

Flip sat in his office, sorting through case files when Jack knocked lightly on the doorframe.

Flip peeked up for a second and invited him in.

"Hey, I just wanted to see if everything was okay, I noticed she didn't come in today," Jack asked, placing his hands in his pockets.

Flip halted his movements and looked up at Jack with wide eyes, curious why he was so worried about you. "Yeah. She's okay. I mean, she will be. She's just not feeling well," Flip said, not wanting to share the details since you told him not to out of embarrassment. Slipping and falling in the shower sounded like a senile thing to do, plus you didn't want word spreading that you had nerve damage issues before you could have a doctor check it out.

Jack nodded, "Okay, good. Um, one other thing..."

Flip held a finger up to Jack since his phone started to ring. "Chief Zimmerman," he answered, causing Jack to shift his stance hearing Flip refer to himself as 'chief'. He still hated the idea of reporting to him.

"Really? And he thinks it was Donna who called it in?" Flip spoke into the receiver, listening as Ron explained the conversation Hopper had as well as his discoveries from the fire   
"Really? And he thinks it was Donna who called it in?" Flip spoke into the receiver, listening as Ron explained the conversation Hopper had as well as his discoveries from the fire. "Okay, thanks for letting me know, bud. I'll call you later, I've got... someone in my office right now."

Flip hung up the phone and glanced back at Jack. "What else did you need?"

"Oh uh, so my apartment is being renovated. I was going to ask Sara if she didn't mind if I stayed with her for the next week or so but I actually wanted to check with you first since it's technically your home."

Flip narrowed his eyes at Jack, thinking about how bothersome it would be to have Jack around all the time considering how he had already walked in on the two of you having sex.

"Well, man, I'll be honest, I'm not crazy about the idea. But if you don't have anywhere else to crash then, I guess it's really up to Sara." Flip shrugged.

Jack smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I get it. I'm sorry about... uh... that day. But I promise I'll keep my distance. You won't even know I'm around more," he said as Flip angled his brow suspiciously. "Thanks, man. I'll go talk to Sara."

He turned and walked out, leaving Flip to let out a long sigh as he tried to mentally work through all the information he just received in the last five minutes.

Bridges killed Rick.

Bridges wife might be in danger.

Still don't know how the cabin burned down.

Jack will be living only yards away.

"Fuck me..." Flip said to himself just before his cell phone started buzzing from his pocket. He smiled when he saw your name.

"Hey sweet thing," he answered sweetly.

"Flip..." was your initial reply, which only made him tense up since you didn't call him some cute nickname.

"What is it?" about a hundred things ran through his mind. All were bad, all were dark.

You hesitated a moment, trying to find the right words so he wouldn't freak out.

"Someone came by today. They, um... left something. A sort of message, I guess," you continued. Flip's blood pressure rose with every word you said.

"Are you alright?" was his next immediate question.

"Yeah. Yes, Sara and I are fine," you assured him. "But, can you come home? There's some damage to the house and I need help fixing it since it's so cold outside."

Flip stood up. "What kind of damage?" he asked, fearing the worse like an attempted act of arson.

"A broken window," you answered. "Someone threw a brick through it."

"Jesus..." he remarked. "Did you see who?"

You explained that you tried taking down the intruder and failed which only stressed Flip out even more knowing that you had difficulty fending for yourself.

"Shit. I knew I shouldn't have left you today. I'm leaving right now, just call me immediately if anything else happens before I get there."

Add another stressor to the list...


	7. Loyalty

Flip stood in the exam room, studying the contents in all the glass jars placed in a neat row along the counter. He lifted his brows when he saw a diagram of the human nervous system on the wall. 

"Hm. That's nuts," he squinted. "Looks like a goddman maze. How the hell do they figure out which one is broken?" he asked, eyes dancing all over the picture.

You shrugged. "Modern medicine, honey. I'm sure they'll attach some kind of machine to me and light me up like a Christmas tree."

He nodded, moving over to the otoscope on the wall next to the diagram. He tinkered with it like it was a toy for a moment before you nudged him. "You break it, you buy it, mister" you teased.

He snickered. "I don't even know what the fuck it is..." he held the device up to one eye and peered through the lens. "...but I'm sure I could find a creepy use for it." He aimed it at your chest and leaned in close to examine your cleavage. You pulled away and pinched him.

There was a knock on the door before it started to open and Flip scurried to put the device back on the wall, pretending he wasn't up to anything.

The doctor walked in announced your name as a question as he peeked up from your chart and over his reading glasses.

"Yes, that's me, nice to meet you," you shook his hand and introduced Flip as your fiance. 

"Dr. Pearson, good to meet you, Flip." They exchanged a firm handshake before sitting down.

Once the doctor went through his preliminary questions, and a physical exam, he felt confident that you had nerve damage but wanted to do a nerve conduction study to understand the severity of the injured nerve and whether or not to advise surgery.

You noticed that Flip's expression grew more and more concerned with every word Dr. Pearson spoke. 

"So, if she doesn't get surgery, will it heal on its own?" Flip asked, leaning over in his chair to listen closely.

"As long as the nerve isn't severed, it should heal on its own with proper treatment. It may take some time, these things don't happen overnight. So it could take months or even years to heal completely." 

Your stomach felt heavy. Years? It could take years to heal?

Flip also appeared to be in distress over the possibility. 

You left the appointment feeling worse about you situation than before you arrived. You'd come back in a week to do the conduction study per his suggestion. Until then, he ordered you to begin treatment with physical therapy sessions.

Flip parked in the station lot and turned the ignition off, taking a minute to grab a cigarette and light it as you stared off into the distance in a daze wondering what the hell your future would be if you couldn't keep your job. He looked over at you as he cracked his window and exhaled the smoke from his first drag.

"Hey, now. Whatever is happening in the pretty little head, just take it down a notch," his hand found your thigh and squeezed. "One day at a time, sweet thing." 

Somehow he was able to say encouraging words, even though he was feeling just as anxious about it all. But Flip was a master at hiding his anxiety so this was just another thing to push deep down and pretend it was no big deal.

Easy peasy.

Two hours later, you were elbow-deep in paperwork with your new assignment in... fraud. Ugh. You even hated the word. Fraud. You almost felt like a fraud at this point, having your new limitation holding you back from being the detective you wanted to be. You stood up and walked through the bullpen, frowning at your old cubicle that was now empty and awaiting its new homicide detective.

Jack saw you from his desk and nodded. "Hey, stranger. How's fraud?"

You leaned on your old desk, resting against it with your arms crossed while gazing over to Jack. "Fucking sucks. How's homicide?"

"Ahh, you're not missing much. Same ole, same ole right now," Jack narrowed his eyes at you realizing you had an injury to your face. "Is your cheek bruised?"

You had packed on the makeup this morning to cover your banged-up face from slipping and falling in the shower yesterday but apparently, you needed to reapply. You were still wary about letting anyone know about your new diagnosis so you played aloof.

"Oh, it's nothing. I didn't feel well yesterday, allergies and all. So I was all doped up on Benadryl and my clumsy ass ran into the bathroom door."

Jack gave you a suspicious look. "You ran into the door? Like... you didn't see the door?" he smirked, not at all believing you. 

You rolled your eyes at him. "Leave me alone. I had a rough day."

He leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, Sara told me what happened," Jack said, referring to the intruder busting out the window. "Who do you think it was?"

"I mean... I have an idea but..." you sighed, looking over towards Flip's office as he spoke on the phone. You hated how you weren't able to properly defend yourself. "You know what I need?" you said, changing the subject.

Jack cocked his brow at you. "What?"

"I need to start exercising more. Maybe take some self-defense classes and build up my strength and agility."

He gave you an impressed look. "Yeah. My gym offers that kind of stuff. You should come by and check it out."

"Maybe I will."

********************************

"What do you mean it could take weeks to process?? I need the prints ran and results given to me by tomorrow. No later than that."

Flip was growing more frustrated while speaking to the forensics lab analyst on the phone. He had dropped off the brick to be tested for fingerprints hours ago on priority but was getting the run-around.

You peeked through the crack in his office door.

"No... no. That won't work. I'm telling you to make this a priority, so if you're having trouble understanding me then maybe I need to speak to your supervisor."

He sighed deeply, looking up at you and waving you inside.

"Good."

He roughly hung up the receiver.

"Close the door." He directed, gazing down at his desk while rubbing his temple. You slowly latched the door shut.

"Lock it."

Your heart fluttered and a rush of heat diffused over your body as you turned the lock.

You glanced over to the window that surveyed out into the bullpen, wondering if he was going to tell you to close the blinds next. No one was visible at the moment since it was the middle of the day and most officers were on their lunch break.

You walked towards his desk.

"Everything oka-"

He silently held a hand up to stop you, causing you to freeze. The look on his face confused you, the corner of his lips pulled down, face strained, eyes not meeting your gaze. He reached over to grab his pack of cigarettes from his desk, pulling one out and flicking his zippo lighter on. 

You gave him the reserved moment he needed, patiently waiting for him to speak as you watched the smoke push out from his nose. He rested his elbows on the desk, holding the cigarette in between his fingers. You noticed it was shaking in his hand.

His eyes finally met yours and they were glazed over, red and bloodshot. It occurred to you that he wasn't trying to get frisky, but rather he was on the edge of a breakdown. You slowly walked around the desk and placed your palm on his shoulder, rubbing across the nape of his neck before leaning down to hug him. 

It always seemed like the small things would set him off but in reality, it was because he pushed everything down, suppressing it all, causing a balloon of conflict inside him that eventually would pop.

He let out a small sigh of relief when you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed his favorite spot. The area right under his earlobe. It always made him smile, spreading goosebumps over his skin. This time was no different and you grinned at the cold chill, sending shivers through him. 

"How do you make me feel better with a simple touch like that?"

He leaned back in his chair, hand finding your hip and clutching. He glanced over to the window, making sure no one was in sight before he pulled you onto his lap. 

"Whoa... I should report you to HR..." you taunted, leaning over to brush your nose against his.

He smiled, reaching up to seize your breast. "You came on to me first..." he pressed his lips into yours and you tasted the fresh tabacco of the cigarette that was still in his other hand. 

Pulling your lips away, you held your forehead against his. "How else am I supposed to get raises? I'm practically crippled now," you said in jest as he frowned at you, pulling your injured hand up to kiss it.

The loud ringing from his desk phone took you both out of the peaceful moment. You attempted to move from his lap but he kept you there, reaching over to answer the phone.

"Chief Zimmerman," he answered as you bit your lip. Hearing Flip refer to himself as the chief never got old. 

You saw Jack return to his desk from lunch so you casually got up from Flip's lap before he saw anything, not wanting to appear inappropriate at work. Flip was chatting away with the caller when you motioned that you were leaving to go back to work. He gave you a nod and a wink as you slipped out the door. 

You heard Jack holler your last name so you went back over to his desk. He gave you the information for the trainers at his gym and told you where it was located.

Flip watched the two of you converse through his window, half-ass paying attention now to his call. He watched you smile at Jack, thanking him for something before walking away. He watched how Jack checked you out as you strolled back to your department. Flip narrowed his eyes at Jack, as suspicions about him grew. 

"Hey, can I call you back? I need to check on something real quick." 

Flip ended his current call and switched to his cell phone, finding Hopper's number.

"Yeah." Hopper casually answered with a mouth full of food.

"Hey... why did you hire Jack?"

Hopper swallowed and chuckled. "You really don't like him, do you?"

"No. I don't. But what I mean is, where did you find him?"

Hopper shrugged. "I went through the Captain. Told him I needed someone and he asked around. Not sure who recommended him."

Flip stood up and started pacing around his office, running his hand through his hair as he considered his thoughts. "Do you think Bridges recommended him?"

Hopper paused from eating and leaned back in his chair. "Hadn't considered it. Why?"

Flip rubbed his chin and watched Jack typing away on his computer, oblivious to being analyzed. "I don't know. Maybe I'm being a dick since I don't care for his ass, but... there's something about him that I can't shake."

Hopper nodded. "Alright. I'll see what I can find out."

"Thanks. How's the motel treatin' ya?"

"Oh, just peachy." Hopper smiled sarcastically. 

"Shouldn't be much longer for the insurance check to arrive. Do whatever you want with it, man."

"Can't wait."

*********************************

A week had come and gone without any new developments. The fingerprint analysis on the brick came back as inconclusive. Sara agreed to let Jack stay with her while his apartment was being renovated and so far, things seemed to be going fine. The bruise on your face had turned from a reddish yellow mark to deep blue and purple. No amount of concealer was helping you anymore. 

Physical therapy seemed to be going well and you were waiting to hear back from the conduction study results. You hadn't had any other episodes like the first time, but you did notice a huge difference in your normal abilities to pick up anything. Your right arm was so much weaker than it used to be.

You and Sara chatted in the kitchen while Flip tended to the grill outside. Jack was sitting at the kitchen table, busy scrolling through his phone while drinking his beer.

"Jesus, your bruise looks so painful. Is it getting worse?" Sara asked, studying the discoloration.

"I mean, it hurts when I smile, or when I touch it. But it will go away," you shrugged off her concern.

"Slipping in the shower is so traumatic. You're just lying there... naked, wet, and crying," she said, sipping on her wine as Jack peeked up from his phone. "It sounds so whimsical. Like a damsel in distress."

You internally cringed, remembering that you hadn't told Sara to keep your accident private. She didn't realize that you told Jack a different story.

Sara's phone began ringing and she cursed out loud. "It's my mom. I'll be right back."

She walked into the livingroom to take the call in semi-privacy, leaving you and Jack in the kitchen alone.

You tried not to make eye contact with him, hoping that he wouldn't mention anything, but of course, he wasn't going to let you get away lying to him. 

"Shower, huh? So... not the door?"

You rolled your eyes and sighed, taking a long drink of your wine.

"Why did you lie about it?"

"Because slipping in the shower is embarrassing." you quickly replied. 

He stood up from the table and walked over to you, beer in hand. "Well, I think there's another reason." he disputed you.

You shifted your stance, placing your wine glass down on the counter and crossing your arms in defiance.

"Oh, really? And what's that?"

He stared down at you, gnawing on his cheek as he contemplated, checking over his shoulder to the back door where Flip was just on the other side. 

"Did he hit you?"

A look of utter shock appeared on your face, jaw half-open once you heard the words. His accusation was almost comical to you.

"Excuse me? Are you serious right now?"

He shrugged. "I've seen his temper and I've seen how much he drinks. Let's not forget, he held a loaded fucking gun to my back. So, no, I wouldn't put it past him."

"Watch it, Jack," you warned.

He sighed, shaking his head as he took a swig of his beer. He looked at you with a softened gaze, as if he seemed remorseful for you.

"It's so hard to watch you settle for him."

Without another thought, you whipped your hand across Jack's face, smacking him hard. You knew his intentions weren't coming from a concerned point of view. He was hitting on you again. In the very home you shared with Flip. With Sara in the next room.

Flip had just walked through the back door, having witnessed the split second your hand struck Jack's face.

The room fell silent as everyone stood frozen, your eyes filled with fury as you stared at Jack.

Flip casually stepped in further, eyes casting back and forth between the two of you.

"I'm sure you deserved whatever that was about, but color me curious, I'd still like to know what's going on," he said, placing the plate of steaks down on the table from the grill.

You waited for Jack to man-up and go head to head with the man he accused of beating you. It came as no surprise when he said nothing and instead, gawked at the floor.

Sara strolled back into the kitchen, having ended her call. "Whoa... why is everyone weird?"

Your heart hurt for her, knowing that her boyfriend wasn't the good guy he was pretending to be and how it was all about to be exposed.

"She slapped him." Flip said to Sara, matter-of-factly.

Sara walked over and made eye contact with you, gently pushing you over to take your spot in front of Jack.

"What did you say to her?" she scrutinized Jack's strained face. She tried to read his expression and saw something in his eyes that made her scoff.

"I already know. Fucking snake. You're still not over her, are you?"

Flip became alert at her accusation, watching them intently with his arms crossed.

"I don't need this shit, I'm leaving." Jack stormed out of the kitchen and Sara followed him.

"Good! I want you to leave, fucking dick!"

Their argument carried out into the front yard as Sara made sure Jack removed his belongings from the loft. 

"Take all your shit because you're not coming back!"

You and Flip exchanged some quiet glances from across the kitchen, hearing the commotion, before he finally spoke.

"So, what happened?"

"Same shit. Except this time, he thinks you hit me," you said, gesturing to your bruise and rolling your eyes.

Flip gave you a bewildered look. "Why the hell he is so protective over you?"

You shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because we were partners and he just hasn't moved on from it..."

Flip sighed and walked over to cup your face and kiss your cheek. "Well, his new partner will be starting soon so hopefully she will keep him preoccupied."

You perked your head up, "She?"

"Yeah, I haven't met her in person yet. Just had some phone interviews but she's sharp. Should be a strong addition."

Even though he didn't mean it that way, his choice of words left you feeling inadequate. Hopefully, you could begin training soon and build your strength back. Also if you were stuck in the fraud unit, either way, you didn't want to lose your edge. 

Flip's phone buzzed from his shirt pocket and he was quick to answer it as you walked into the living room to peek out of the blinds, curious if Jack and Sara were still fighting or not. To your surprise, you didn't see or hear anything and Jack's car was still in the driveway. They must be talking things over in the loft.

"You're kidding? I fucking knew it."

You looked back over to Flip who appeared to be having an epiphany on the phone.

"Yeah. I won't. But I will confront his ass. I want the details, he owes us that much if he's innocent."

You furrowed your brows, not understanding what he was talking about or who he was talking to. He hung up, putting the phone back in his shirt pocket, and cracked his knuckles before rolling up the sleeves of his flannel.

"Hey, what was that about?"

It looked like he was preparing himself for battle and becoming more flushed with rage by each passing second. 

"I swear to God, I'm gonna kill this motherfucker. If he's the reason..."

He didn't finish his thought before he was out the front door and marching towards the loft with angry strides. You trailed behind him, asking for more of an explanation as to why he was freaking out but getting nothing out of him.

Flip swung open the loft door and was greeted by the sight of Jack and Sara fucking on her couch.

"Oh, what the shit!..." Flip groaned, holding up his hand to block the view out of disgust. His prompt halt caused you run into him and you peeked around his large frame to see what stopped him in his tracks, immediately regretting it and hiding behind him. 

"What the fuck, man!" Jack shouted, covering himself and Sara with a throw blanket

Flip pointed at Jack. "You. Outside... right fucking now. We need to talk."

He turned and seized your arm, leading you out the door with him.

You both made your way down the stairs and waited outside by the garage.

"Well they made up quick," you smirked, rubbing the sides of your arms to keep warm. "Are you gonna tell me what the hell is going on? What was that phone call about?"

"Bridges is the one who recommended Jack to be transferred. To be your assigned partner."

Your eyes went wide and a pit in your stomach grew. Had Jack been working with Bridges this whole time? Your mind went blank out of disturbed confusion.

The sound of the loft door slamming shut caught your attention as you turned and saw Jack walking down the stairs, hair disheveled and shirt halfway unbuttoned.

Flip was on him as soon as Jack's foot met the ground. 

"The fuck is your problem?" Jack said, pushing against Flip to create space between them.

Flip pushed back into him hard, causing Jack to collide with the garage behind him. He kept him pinned there as he began his interrogation.

"You wanna explain to me why Bridges transferred you here?" 

"W- what??"

Flip held his forearm up against Jack's collar bone, pressing into him.

"Why the fuck did Bridges recommend you of all people to come sit next to my fiancee every day? The same motherfucker who filed a restrainting order against his daughter. Why would he reccomend you?"

All the color drained from Jack's face as if he had just seen a ghost.

"I swear, man... I don't know. I didn't even know he recommended me."

Flip's dark eyes stayed focused on Jack's facial expressions, carefully scanning for any sign of a lie being told. He wanted to believe him but something was still tugging at his instincts that Jack wasn't who he claimed to be.

"I've got my fucking eye on you, Ryan."

He released him from the wall, keeping a stern glare on him as he backed away.

"You really think I'm working against you guys? I took a bullet for her," Jack said, motioning to you. "You think I planned that shit?!"

Flip tightened his jaw, clearly remembering when you called him to tell him that Jack got shot. It was the same night you tried breaking up with him. Jack tried to swoop in only a week later insisting that you give him a chance and leave Flip behind. Oh yes, he remembered. And although Flip didn't quite understand what happened moments ago in the kitchen and why you slapped Jack, he knew it was because the man was up to no good once again.

Jack started to walk past Flip to leave when Flip stopped him by grabbing his bicep. 

"One more thing. Don't hit on my girl ever again. Or I'll fucking bury your ass."

*********************************

Jack left and drove to a motel that evening. It was some off-beat, out-dated place that was close to his apartment. He tossed his suitcase on the squeaky bed and sat on the edge, leaning over and running his hands over his hair. He sighed and rested his chin in his hand, appearing deep in thought.

A few moments later he pulled his cell out and scrolled through his phone book. 

He pressed the call button and held the phone up to his ear, waiting for the other end to pick up.

"Hey. It's me. There's a problem."

He exhaled deeply and laid back flat against the mattress, staring up at the water-stained ceiling.

"He's onto us."

Robert Bridges held the phone up to his ear, leaning back in his seat and blew cigar smoke out of his mouth.

"Guess it's time to get moving, then."

Jack frowned and nodded in response. 

"Okay."

Bridges, seeming unconvinced that Jack was still onboard, challenged him.

"Can I still count on you? Or do we need to have another discussion about your loyalty?"

Jack chewed his cheek, becoming irritated. 

"I said 'okay'. I'll take care of it."


	8. Revved Up

You woke up to the crisp air as you turned over to search for warmth from Flip with morning cuddles. He was always such a good cuddler, but instead you were surprised to be greeted by an empty bed with a single red rose laying on his pillow and a note attached. You grinned and reached for the flower, inhaling its floral scent as you opened the folded note.

Happy Valentine's Day to the most perfect girl. My sweet thing. -Love, Flip

PS... come find daddy.

The smile on your face grew as you tossed the covers off to the side and wrapped yourself up in your fluffy bathrobe. You scurried down the stairs to the find him putting another log into the fireplace. Glancing over to your right and into the kitchen you saw a full bouquet of red roses on the table with a wrapped present next to it. 

He looked up at you and noticed how you were holding your excitement behind your huge smile and morning hair, eyes darting back and forth between him and the gifts. 

"Well, go get it!" he gestured with amusement as you squealed with joy, skipping into the kitchen as he followed. 

You admired the flowers for a moment, thanking him even though you both knew it was so cliche. But this was your first Valentine's together and no amount of sappy guilt was going to stop you from enjoying the act of being spoiled.

You tore open the present and opened the box while Flip watched you. Inside was a framed b&w picture of Flip's hand holding your hand at your bedside when you were in the hospital. Your engagement ring was on and Flip angled it in a way to show it off for the picture.

"This was right after I put it on you before you woke up and accepted." he chuckled at the last part. "I thought even if you said 'no', at least I'd have this picture."

You felt an array of emotions. "You actually thought I was gonna say 'no' to your proposal?"

He shrugged. "No, I knew you'd say 'yes' because I'm the best you've ever had..." he said in jest but with total confidence, looking down at you. "...but yeah, I was still nervous."

You put down the thoughtful picture so you could pull him into a hug.

"Wait... there's one more thing..." he pointed to the box. You sifted through the tissue paper and found a gold necklace with the name 'Mrs. Zimmerman' plated on it. 

Your eyes lit up and you looked at him. "Aww... babe! That's so cute that you think I'm gonna change my last name," you teased.

He narrowed his eyes and gave you an onery look, gripping your love handles and tickling you. 

"You drive me fuckin' crazy, woman."

You giggled as he embraced you, burying his face into the curve of your neck, placing titillative kisses there. You squirmed but he only held you tighter.

"Wait, don't we have to work today??" you mentioned as he kept kissing your neck.

"Daddy called in for you," he muttered against your skin. "We're gonna watch a movie..." he nibbled on your delicate shoulder. "...then we're gonna take a bath...." his lips brushed against your earlobe and his facial hair tickled you. "...then we're gonna stay in bed for the rest of the day... and make love until the sun goes down." He brought his lips closer to yours. 

"Sounds perfect," you said with a smile.

You kissed one another deeply, feeling his hands move from your waist and up to the sides of your face. 

He pulled his soft lips away for a moment as he gently held your face in his palms.

"You're my world. And I love you so much..." he tucked a strand of hair behind your ear as your heart fluttered with happiness. "...but I get to pick the movie ...and we're watching Die Hard." he quickly smacked your ass and hurried into the living room to plop down on the couch as you were left blindsided in the kitchen.

You rolled your eyes and smiled, stepping over to the doorway and watching him recline, remote in hand with a joyful expression beaming from his face. He was a simple man, and it didn't take much to keep him happy. You realized how lucky you were at the moment to have found the love of your life, knowing that you'd risk anything for him. 

You glanced over to the broken window that Flip had somewhat repaired for the moment until a new window could be installed. The impending notion that someone had 'found you' and was watching your every move was still a real threat to you both. That anxiety of the unknown coupled with your current medical condition made you feel helpless. You decided that tomorrow you would go to Jack's gym and meet with a trainer. If anything, you'd feel better knowing how to defend yourself with one arm if you ever got into a position where you lost control of your strength again. 

But right now? Well, right now you were going to watch John McClane blow some shit up while you snuggled with your mountain man. Then you'd take a bubble bath together and make love until the sun goes down, just like Flip said. Because that was your amazing life, and you'd be damned if someone tried to take it away from you. 

*******************************************

Jack pulled up to the secluded hideout, checking his rearview mirror to make sure no one had followed him. He double checked his weapon to make sure it was loaded before putting it into its holster. Taking a deep breath he got out of the car and walked up to the otherwise abandoned trailer. 

He knocked twice, paused, then knocked four times in a row as he was instructed to do. 

A squirrelly-looking man cracked opened the door and peeked out. 

"Name?"

Jack cleared his throat. "Jack Ryan."

The man whispered to someone else behind the door before opening it up all the way and letting Jack inside. It was the first time Jack had met up with Bridges or anyone else left from the organization since the night Mandy was killed and all hell broke loose. Any business communications had been done over burner phones since that night.

However, Bridges found it to be pertinent for everyone to gather in person. 

Jack walked in and took a seat in the room along with three other men that he had never met before. His anxiety started to rise, unsure of who they were and what exactly Bridges had planned.

Robert Bridges finally strolled into the room and dropped a basket onto the coffee table.

"I want all weapons and phones."

Everyone began disarming themselves and placing the items into the basket as he instructed.

He grabbed the full basket, handing it to another gentleman who took it into the backroom as Jack's eyes followed them.

"The people in this room are all that's left of our organization," Bridges stated as he wheeled over a whiteboard with names and pictures displayed on it. Jack's eyes immediately went to your picture and his palms became sweaty. 

Bridges pointed to the first picture. "Jim Hopper. Chief of Colorado Springs PD." he pointed to the second picture below it. "And Ron Stallworth. Detective, Colorado Springs PD." He took a second to study the pictures then look at the men sitting down in front of him. 

"We need them eliminated. And it needs to look like an accident. Just like that bartender."

Jack's stomach was in knots. He knew this was coming but he was hoping he would've find a way out of this mess by now. 

One of the men sitting down spoke to Bridges.

"Well, we tried to burn his house down with him inside..."

Bridges interrupted.

"And where the hell was he?? ...."

The man tried to rationalize. "Well, his truck was there, so I assumed..."

Bridges held up his hand. "Strike one. Don't assume. Fucking know, without a doubt, next time."

The man cowered down and nodded in agreement.

Bridges pointed to your picture and looked at Jack. "You gonna take care of this the right way, Ryan? Or are you gonna take a bullet for her again?"

Jack gazed at Bridges with anger in his eyes. "I told you, I'd take care of it."

Bridges nodded and looked over at Flip's picture.

"Good. Cause I got my hands full with this one."

Jack had gotten himself unintentionally caught up in the organization years ago when he had hit hard times. He was trying to make it as an independent private investigator when Walter, the original org leader, had hired him to do some side work.

Although Jack knew exactly who Walter was at the time and the illegal activity the organization was involved with, he tried to just keep the side work to a minimum and only participated in a way that kept him separated from the crimes. Jack knew the intel he was providing to Walter and the org certainly helped them carry out crimes, but he tried to dissociate himself from it. 

When Walter introduced Jack to Robert Bridges, worlds collided and Jack realized he needed to get out. But Jack had become too valuable to Walter and so he threatened him. If he didn't continue to work for Walter, the organization would go after Jack's family; his mother and younger sister. He was cornered, so he agreed for the moment until he could figure something else out.

Jack was sent to Salt Lake City with the mission of keeping you away from Flip so that the organization could try and recruit him. Getting as many officers drafted into the org made them stronger and created a world without consequences for the crimes they carried out. If Flip refused to join, they'd have to kill him for knowing too much. Jack was supposed to keep you distracted so you would move on from Flip and not be a roadblock. They knew Flip needed to feel like he had nothing to lose if they were going to get him to agree. And as long as you were in his life, you were his "something to lose."

There was only one problem. Jack fell in love with you. 

That reality became obvious to Walter and Bridges the day Jack jumped in front of the bullet that was meant for you in order to save your life. You shouldn't be a problem for them anymore, you should be buried in some nice cemetery by now, but here you still were. Planning a wedding with the man who murdered Bridges' daughter. 

Robert Bridges wanted revenge. In his eyes, Flip had ruined his entire life, killing his only daughter, exposing him to the FBI, and by extension, causing his wife to begin divorce proceedings. 

He was controlling what was left of the organization under false pretenses, making it seem like the purpose of taking everyone down was to rebuild. He promised future plans of helping Walter escape prison but in reality, Bridges just wanted Flip dead. He needed to clear his path to Flip by eliminating everyone else close to the case so that after he carried out his retaliation, he could abandon the org, relocate far away, change his identity and try to start over. 

His motivation was never to rebuild the group. He only wanted to take down the one person who he believed destroyed his life...

Philip Zimmerman was a dead man walking.

********************************************

Flip was hunched down next to his motorcycle, fixing the last part before he could take it out for its first official test drive. Music from the radio was blaring in the garage as he stayed focus on the task. He reached down to grab his beer bottle from the floor, taking a quick swig before wiping the engine grease off his hands. 

A large yawn escaped him as he rubbed the back of his neck. He was struggling with sleep again since he had become more suspicious of Jack. The background check he ran the other day came back clean. There was nothing in Jack's history that pointed to him being a dirty cop. 

But Flip knew there was something else at work. Jack made his skin crawl and he knew the guy wasn't who he claimed to be. He had to figure out a way to get him to crack, to admit it, without having to torture him as he had done with Nick and Mandy. He would never get away with doing that to a fellow officer. 

A small noise from the corner of the garage caused Flip's heart to stop. He scanned the garage as he slowly moved over to the tool bench to grab his gun. He carefully aimed his weapon to where he heard the noise, silently waiting for another movement. 

An opossum came wobbling out from the dark corner and Flip exhaled deeply, lowering his gun. 

Living on constant edge was exhausting. He pushed the barrel of the gun into the back waistband of his jeans as he tried shooing the pest towards the door, reaching for the knob to open it.

You were met with an opossum running out of the garage right as Flip opened the door and you yelped which also caused Flip to flinch in shock not knowing you'd be on the other side.

"Fuuuucking Christ, woman! Bout gave me a heart attack."

You laughed and bit your lower lip. "I'm sorry, that thing scared me! What the hell was it?"

Flip sighed, moving over to let you inside. "Future roadkill."

You walked over to the motorcycle and ran your hand over the leather seat. "Looking great, honey."

Flip lit a cigarette and nodded as he opened the garage door. "Yep. She's finally done. And the weather's unusually mild out if you wanna take her on a test run with me."

A huge grin grew on your face and you nodded enthusiastically as Flip smiled sweetly at your reaction. 

You straddled the seat, gripping onto Flip as you got comfortable. The roar of the engine against your thighs made you giggle. 

"Holy shit, this already feels amazing."

Flip lifted the bike from the centerstand and slowly wheeled it out of the garage. 

"You should be used to the feeling of something powerful between those legs by now, sweet thing..." he said, grinning right before he twisted the handle, accelerating the bike as you to held onto him tightly. 

You wrapped both arms around Flip's midsection, clasping your hands together, hugging him close from behind as you both cut through the fresh air of the countryside. It was exactly how you imagined it, Flip guiding you both through the beautiful landscape on a steel horse as you held onto your Knight cloaked in plaid and denim. 

After a bit, Flip turned down an unmarked road into the trees and parked. 

"Everything okay?" you asked as he pushed the centerstand down with his boot. He lifted himself off leaving you on the backseat. He stretched, exhaled deeply, and gave you that look. The one he gives you whenever he's about to do something unruly.

He began to unbutton his flannel, slowly, from the top. 

"I know you faked it." He grinned slightly, looking down at his hands as they deliberately worked on each button. 

"Huh? Faked what?" you knew what he meant but didn't want to admit the truth just yet so you played dumb.

He cocked his brow at you, peeking up. "You know..." he removed the flannel, exposing his massively strong upper body to the wilderness. "You faked it when we fucked on this thing." He whipped his shirt and smacked the bike with it.

You pressed your lips together and shrugged. "I have no idea what you mean. I didn't fake anything." You couldn't even make eye contact through the blatant lie. 

He stepped closer and lightly wrapped his strong hand around your throat, bringing your full attention to him. 

"You think I don't know what that pussy feels like when it cums?"

He brushed his lips dangerously close to yours, curling the sides of his mouth into a devilish grin.

"I know you faked it. But you won't fake it again with me, darlin'. If it's not real, daddy doesn't want it."

Without another word, he pressed his lips into you before his tongue pushed through, finding yours and moving wildly against it. 

You were left speechless and burning with desire. He knew you so well, you couldn't hide anything from this man.

He released the kiss and your throat at the same time, moving to unbuckle his belt. You glanced around, realizing it was mostly private with so many thick trees. The main road was about a hundred feet behind you so as long as no one paid too close attention or turned down the unmarked side road, you'd be good. Flip just loved the idea of almost getting caught.

He pulled out his growing erection from his unbuttoned jeans, slowly stroking himself as he gazed at you. 

"You know what I think? I think I deserve an apology." 

You gave him a slighted look. "Is that right? Was I that bad?"

"You lied to me, so I'd say that's pretty bad... bad enough to get on your knees."

You smirked, peering down to the dirty ground at his feet as you moved off the bike. 

"It's a bit gross... there's mud and sticks and rocks..." you tried to reason with him as you cleared an area with your shoe.

He tossed his fannel at you, grinning from ear to ear. "Little bit of muck shouldn't stop a dirty girl like you. Lay this down."

You rolled your eyes at his remark, carefully spreading out the shirt on the ground before kneeling onto it. You gazed up at Flip towering over you as you licked your lips.

"God damn, you look so good," he said stepping closer, holding his hard cock. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

You grinned up at him. "I'm sorry, baby."

He growled, giving you a tilted expression.

"I mean... daddy."

He bit his bottom lip and nodded at your obedience. 

You opened your mouth and he guided his thick cock past your lips. You swirled your tongue over the tip before taking him in, doing your best to relax your jaw so you could cover his length. But just like every time, you had to use your hands to assist with such an immense task. 

He groaned at the sensation of your hands and mouth working together to bring him pleasure. He loved the feeling of your softness pushing, pulling, caressing all of him at once. He moved his hands through your hair, bunching it up and gripping as he followed your lead, giving you the control while he watched his cock move in and out of your eager mouth.

"You're such a good girl for me."

His praise made you moan against him, causing him to grip your hair harder. You heard a car pass by on the main road in the distance and a surge of excitement rushed through you. 

"You like sucking daddy's thick cock, don't you? You love how it fills your mouth up?"

You hummed in agreement as Flip moaned at your response. A couple of raindrops fell on your skin and you gazed up noticing that Flip's bare chest and shoulders were sprinkled with droplets that had begun to fall. He looked positively godlike. 

You pulled your mouth off of him as you continued stroking with your hands. "I want you inside me."

Flip gave you a knowing smile. "I bet you do, babygirl." He seized your wrists. "Stand up and take your clothes off. Everything, off."

It was such a simple request but given your surroundings, you felt ultra exposed. Although once you began removing each piece of clothing and sensing the air and rain on your skin, something inside you felt liberated. It was so freeing to be outdoors, within the thick walls of the forest offering some privacy but knowing you were both still on display in the wilderness. 

It felt so human and raw. 

Flip had removed his clothes along with you and once done, you were both standing face to face with one another, completely vulnerable. The rain had begun to increase, singing you a song of pitter-patter droplets on the leaves and ground all around you. 

You both reached for each other, embracing in a kiss as water slowly covered your skin, dampening your hair and giving you both goosebumps. 

Flip slowly pulled his lips away from yours, still holding onto you tightly. 

"Let's do this the right way."

He got back on the bike and started the engine, keeping it on its center stand. He then moved back and instructed you to sit on the bike's front seat, facing forward. You straddled the bike, feeling almost embarrassed to be on it completely nude and wet, in more ways than one. You adjusted yourself to a comfortable position as Flip leaned forward and guided your hands up to the handlebars.

"Tilt your hips..." he whispered in your ear. You moved your hips and pushed your ass back towards him. With his hand still on top of yours gripping the handlebar, he slowly turned it, causing the engine to roar in an idle mode. The vibration on your clit caused you to inhale sharply and exhale with a laugh. You could sense a huge smile from Flip as he gazed down your bareback to your ass and moved his hands down to clutch your hips.

"You just turn that handle whenever you want to feel that, and I'll make damn sure you cum this time."

You were leaned over and using the handlebars for balance as you felt Flip adjust your bodies so that he could bring his hard cock to your core. He rubbed the head of his dick against your slit as you felt your wetness mix with the saliva from him that had saturated his cock. 

You felt him push the first few inches inside and you revved the engine in unison, sending a flurry of excitement through your body. You moaned as he pulled back and pushed in even deeper.

You revved up the engine every time he slowly pushed into you, sending the ultimate range of vibrations through your body as he stretched you open. He moaned and groaned from behind, taking his time to build up the pleasure inside your bodies, relishing in how beautiful you looked bent over his bike as he fucked you in the rain.

"You look so fucking good like this..." he said, grazing his hands up your back to clutch your damp hair, tugging slightly as he pushed into you as deep as he could. "And you feel fucking amazing."

You released the handlebars, letting your upper body bend backward following his tug on your hair. His other hand found your breast as he picked up his pace. 

An animalistic mood swept over you, feeling Flip thrusting deep into your cunt as you let your head fall back, rain dropping onto your face from above and trailing down your whole body. It was magical, spiritual, and sexy as hell. 

You began to feel your peak rising more and more with every push into you. 

"Just like that, baby... don't stop..." you encouraged him, feeling his reaction light up. 

His hand moved from your breast to your exposed neck and you felt his thumb brush the side of your mouth. You turned your head slightly so you could suck on his thick digit as the rest of his hand held your jaw. He moaned at the move and you felt him smack your ass cheek.

"God, I fucking love when you do that..."

He thrusted into you harder, grunting as the sensation of his own climax coming to the edge.

"I want you to cum, babygirl... give it to me. I want to feel it."

You released his thumb from your mouth and leaned back towards the bike, revving the engine again to bring yourself there. You bucked your hips back, meeting his with every thrust forward to intensify it. 

"Yeah baby, take this fucking cock... take it..."

You held your breath, feeling your walls clamped down on him, revving the engine once more as it hit you hard.

"That's it... that's a good girl... that's a good fucking girl..." Flip said through gritted teeth as he felt you writhed against him, pulsating through the orgasm you deserved. 

He gripped the sides of your hips as he pounded faster then came inside you, riding out the end of your orgasm with the beginning of his own. 

You moaned in tandem with his groans of release, both coming down from the ecstasy of it all. 

After a few seconds, he leaned in front of you and turned the engine off.

You exhaled deeply together, trying to find your breath.

He kissed the nape of your neck, trailing over to your shoulder then up to your ear.

"I love you." his whisper was sweet and sincere.

You turned your head to look at him over your shoulder. 

"I love you."

He wrapped his arms around you in response, hugging you close as you both took a moment to enjoy one another in solitude; without interruption, without drama, and if only for a small fraction of time, without worry.

***********************************

A/N: If you're feeling conflicted over Jack after reading this chapter, that's totally okay and intentional. MANY of you have been suspicious of him for a while and I always find characters who are "bad guys" with good qualities to them super interesting. He has a broad fan base - people either hate him, wanna fuck him, or both. Which one are you?


	9. Faithful

Flip's palms were sweaty as he stroked your leg up and down nervously while you both sat in your coach seats, waiting for the plane to take off.

"I never knew you hated flying so much," you mentioned, grasping his hand to calm him.

"I'd be fine if I could just smoke a damn cigarette," Flip took in a deep inhale through his nose as the plane approached the runaway. He peeked over you and out the window as he reached into his pocket for some gum to ease his oral fixation.

"No worries, baby. We can always get you a drink once we're up in the air. Maybe a rum and coke?" you suggested, pulling out the menu from the seat pocket in front of you.

Flip smirked. "I wish I could, but mom will smell it on me right away and I won't hear the end of it." Flip's started tapping his foot, anticipating the stress of lift-off.

You were both flying into Denver for the weekend so that you could meet his mother and sister for the first time. It was important for you both to meet each other's parents before the wedding as opposed to during to minimize any awkwardness. 

Flip didn't speak about his family very often, but he did manage to check in with his mother weekly, usually on Sunday afternoons while you folded laundry and listened to him say "yeah", "no" and "okay" about a hundred times as she chatted his ear off. Whenever he did get a chance to speak, you could tell she would give him a hard time about cursing too much and always, always, asked if he had quit smoking yet.

After a turbulent flight and Flip squeezing your leg to the point you knew he left bruises, you had landed safely in Denver. Judith, Flip's mother, and Rachel, his younger sister, were waiting at the gate, waving wildly as you both walked through the terminal.

Flip hugged his mother first, then sister right before he officially introduced you to them.

"It's so good to finally meet you both," you said, politely reaching out to shake their hands. Rachel seemed a bit standoff-ish so you respected her space.

Judith nodded and accepted your hand. "Well, it's certainly been a journey for you. I know Philip keeps a lot from me since he doesn't think I can handle the truth sometimes," she gave Flip side-eye. "But if you make my son happy, then I'm happy for you both."

You could tell right away that Judith was a tough cookie. She was protective of Flip having been a single mother for most of her life, but in the end, she just wanted what was best for him.

She leaned over towards Flip and took a deep inhale through her nose, giving him a disgusted look.

"Haven't you quit smoking yet?? I can tell you're trying to cover it up with menthol gum, by the way. You know, Mary Ann's son from temple...David? He has gum disease now because of it."

"I don't have gum disease, ma," Flip answered with annoyance, guiding everyone to walk out of the airport and move on from the conversation.

Judith filled most of the otherwise silent car ride to her house, catching up with Flip on her new hobby of crocheting while Rachel spent time scrolling on her phone. Flip was already looking exhausted from all chit-chat when he finally pulled into the driveway of a quaint cottage-style house. 

Judith walked you back to the guest room, aka Flip's old childhood bedroom, that was redecorated with floral patterns and Judith's old beanie baby collection displayed in a corner cabinet. Flip sat on the bed and bounced up and down, hearing the bed squeak and wondering how the hell he would fuck you on it without the whole house hearing.

"Alright, you kids get settled, I'm going to start on supper," Judith pointed at you and Flip. "No funny business on that bed, that bedspread is new." She shot you both a strict look before walking away and you grinned at Flip who gave you a wink. He pulled you in between his knees and you held his head close to your chest. He inhaled your scent as you played with his hair, feeling his hands roam up your thighs, clutching your ass.

"So, this was your room?" you asked looking around for any sign of a younger Flip as he hummed into your bosom. "I like your beanie babies."

He smirked. "Thanks," he replied in a muffle. He pulled his face away and looked up at you. "You'd be surprised how much pussy I got over those."

You tugged his hair, extending his neck back as he winced. "You're the worst," you said through your teeth, leaning down to place a kiss on his lips.

A small knock on the doorway caught your attention and you saw Rachel. She paused at the sight of Flip's hands on your ass and you pulling his hair.

"Uh... sorry. Mom... or Judy... wants to know if you wanna help her in the kitchen?"

"Oh. Sure," you were a bit surprised to be invited to help with supper but figured it was Judith's way of getting to know you better.

"Hi dear... could you help me with these potatoes?" Judith requested, putting a bowl of freshly washed potatoes in front of you with a peeler.

"Yeah, no problem, Judith," you washed your hands before handling the food and she nodded at you with approval.

"Very nice, I'm glad I don't have to hound to wash your hands. Both of these kids are terrible at that. You can call me Judy, by the way."

Already off to a good start, you thought to yourself, grabbing the first potato to peel. 

Flip came in shortly after, taking a soda from the fridge and pulling up a seat at the small kitchen island where you were working. He watched you peel potatoes with lustful eyes as if he was observing you perform some kind of sensual dance for him. You gave him a knowing look and rolled your eyes, biting your bottom lip.

Judy was talking your ear off behind you as she working at the stove and you began to understand why Flip only says "Yeah", "No" and "Okay" when he was on the phone with her because that's all you were saying now.

You grabbed the next potato and started to peel it when your hand turned weak causing you to miss the vegetable entirely and run the peeler over your thumb.

"FUCK!" you yelped, blood oozing from your finger in uncontrollable amounts. Flip darted from his seat and rushed to grab your arm, leading you over to the sink.

"What -what happened?!?" Judy shouted as Flip tried to keep the pressure on your hand and turn the faucet on.

"Ma... get something wrap this, she's bleeding." He instructed as calmly as ever even though he was thrown into a post-traumatic stress episode when he saw your blood. You were hissing and groaning in pain. "It's okay, baby... I got it."

Judy came back with some bandages and a wrap. 

She stayed silent, watching her son take control of the situation and provide aid to your injury. Flip was strategic and thorough as he quickly cleaned the wound, slowed the bleeding, and applied the bandages. He managed the whole situation like a professional until flashes of you lying on the marble floor, bleeding to death came to the front of his mind as he blinked hard several times.

By the time he was finished, his hands were shaking and his breath was irregular.

You looked up at him, grabbing one of his hands to calm him. "Hey... I'm okay. You did awesome, honey. Thank you," you said, trying to bring his anxiety down. He took a deep breath and kissed your forehead, pulling you into a hug.

Judy made eye contact with Flip and smiled sweetly, understanding at that moment how good you were for each other.

The rest of the evening was spent talking and laughing over dinner as Judy told funny childhood stories about Flip and Rachel. Even Rachel appeared to be warming up to you when Judy started showing you old pictures. The three of you were sitting on the couch together, old photo albums laying across your laps as you drank wine and giggled at how cute and awkward Flip looked through his adolescent years. His bad haircuts, his big ears, his pale skin, and his shy smile.

Flip was watching football in the recliner shaking his head every time his mom mentioned something embarrassing about him.

"One time I caught Philip sitting at my makeup vanity, bright red lipstick all over his mouth, blush everywhere... blue eyeshadow everywhere... he looked like a hooker....it was the funniest thing!" Judy laughed, slapping her knee.

You glanced over at Flip who looked like he was in gossip hell and you felt bad for the poor guy. 

You handed the photo album back over to Judy with a smile. "Well, I'm beat so I think I'm ready for bed. This was so fun... thanks, Judy."

"Anytime, dear. You two get some rest," she leaned back into the couch with her wine, flipping through more pictures and enjoying the rest of her trip down memory lane with Rachel.

You dragged Flip away from the TV and you both walked back into the guest room, closing the door behind you. Sitting on the bed first, you bounced up and down just like Flip had done earlier, giggling at the squeaking noise.

Flip appeared distressed as he started to undress for bed and you took note of him. "Hey, big guy, you okay?"

He only answered by clearing his throat and sighing as he proceeded to get into bed on the other side. You turned to face him, patiently waiting for him to tell you what was bothering him.

"I'm sorry if I laughed too much at those stories. Your mom just has a way of telling them-"

"It's not that. I'm used to her telling those damn stories."

You adjusted your posture. "Oh. So what is it, then?"

He tucked his hand behind his head and rested on it, looking over at you. "I'm just worried about you. I know this is only the second time it's happened but... look at what happened," he gestured to your injured hand. "What if no one was around to help you?"

Your gaze moved down to your hand as the feeling of helplessness crept back. "I'm sure I would've been able to take care of it... just wouldn't taken longer... and there would've been a bigger mess to clean up."

Flip sighed. "It was a lot of blood. I even had... a flashback," he admitted in a low voice. You recognized that's why he had been trembling with anxiety afterward.

You gripped his leg to gain his attention.

"It's going to be okay, baby," you assured him. "The physical therapy is helping. I recovered from the bout of weakness faster this time than the first time."

There was a brief moment of silence before you spoke again, questioning whether Flip had considered talking to someone about his PTSD.

"Have you thought about therapy for your flashbacks and nightmares?"

It was the first time you two had ever talked about the possibility of Flip going to therapy for his PTSD, so you weren't sure how he would respond.

Your question was met with a silent shrug as his gaze was focused forward.

You moved to lay next to him in bed and he put his arm around you, letting you snuggle into the nook of his shoulder. You listened to his steady breathing and caressed his chest, making small circles with the tips of your fingers. After a few long moments of cuddling, you heard faint signs of him snoring and you smiled, knowing that your touch comforted him enough to find sleep. 

*************************************

After your short weekend visit to Denver and a quick group dinner with Ron and Hopper to catch up, you and Flip were back in Salt Lake and back to work at the station.

It was your replacement's first week and Jack had been busy showing her the ropes. You couldn't help but notice how attractive she was, and neither could Jack. He seemed smitten with her and for some weird reason, it made you jealous. Maybe you were just jealous that she had your old job and appeared living her best life while you were stuck in the shadows of fucking Fraud.

Maybe you were just jealous that she had your old job and appeared living her best life while you were stuck in the shadows of fucking Fraud  
You began training at Jack's gym every day after work, feeling satisfied to at least take a step towards bettering your circumstances. With only a few sessions in you were already learning so much about defending yourself in new ways. Your coach instructed you to start lifting some weights to build up your strength so you ended up seeing Jack on occasion when you were out on the gym floor.

"So, how's the new girl doing?" you asked through the mirror at Jack in between heavy breaths as you curled each 30-pound dumbbell up.

"Oh, Brooke? Yeah, she's doing really good," Jack replied, lifting his 70-pound dumbbells with ease. "She seems pretty smart so she's catching on quick."

"Awesome..." you sighed. "Good for Brooke."

Jack put his weights down and looked over at you while you tried to hide your sarcasm behind your struggle to lift each weight.

"Do I sense an attitude?"

You kept lifting and exhaling largely between each curl.

"Nope."

Jack rested his hands on his hips and waited for you to finish but you went well past your rep count having lost track out of frustration.

Before you could avoid it, your hand went limp and you dropped the heavyweight onto the rubber mat.

"GOD-dammit!" you yelled. The weight barely missed your foot.

"Jesus, you okay?? What was that?" Jack rushed over, making sure you didn't hurt yourself.

Sweating and exasperated from overdoing it you kicked the weight on the floor from defeat. This was now the third time you lost control and it upset you since you had been working so hard on therapy. 

"Fucking bullshit..." you said, grabbing your limp hand and trying to shake life back to it.

Jack watched you with concern, trying to understand your struggle.

"What's going on?"

You sighed deeply and sat down on the weight bench, feeling disappointed in yourself.

"I have nerve damage. My grip... I lose control of it sometimes," you said, holding your wrist and staring down at your lifeless hand.

Jack took a minute to absorb what you were telling him then connected the dots.

"So... that's why you're not in homicide anymore. And why you're here, taking self-defense classes?

You shrugged. "I mean, Flip is worried about Bridges coming for us... for me, in particular..."

Jack tensed at the name.

"And now with this going on... he's worried I won't be able to defend myself."

Jack swallowed, feeling an extreme sense of guilt, knowing firsthand that Flip's concerns were valid. Your current physical limitation certainly gave Jack the upper hand since he was responsible for you. Bridges hadn't given him the green light to do anything with you yet other than watching your every move. He wasn't positive that his job was even to kill you at any point. Either way, he knew he wouldn't be able to carry out the task if it was ordered of him because of his deep affection towards you. The only good thing to come out of him still being involved with the organization was that he could keep an eye on your safety.

Jack walked over and leaned down in front of you.

"Can I see?" he asked reaching for you.

You allowed him to examine your hand, observing as he turned and twisted your wrist. He lifted your other hand, taking note of the bandage.

"Is this injury related to that?"

You nodded and he looked back down at your hands. His thumb slowly caressed the inner part of your wrist and you reacted, quickly moving your hand out of his grasp.

"I'm sorry..." he said instantly regretting his impulse to soothe your injury.

You stood up, causing Jack to also stand with you.

"I need to get home, I'm sure Flip's waiting," you replied, turning on your heel before any further words were spoken.

Walking into the house, you were surprised to see a drunk Flip on the couch watching TV. He had been doing so well with cutting back on drinking and you hated to see him reverting back to his old ways.

"Hey... you okay?" you asked, walking over to his slouched body.

He stared up at you with his eyes glazed over.

"Ron's in the hospital."

Your heart fell to the floor.

"What?! Why?" you sat down next to Flip on the couch, understanding now why he was numbing.

"Hop went looking for him when he didn't report to work. Found him passed out at home. Doctor said he had a seizure..." Flip said, sounding confused. "But I've never heard him talk about that before."

You reached over and stroked his leg to comfort him as he met your gaze with sullen eyes.

"He's in a coma. A fucking coma..."

You felt tears starting to swell in your own eyes and you leaned over to hug him. Flip's breath hitched in his chest and you tried your best to stay strong so he could have his moment of release while you consoled him.

"It's okay baby," you caressed his back, feeling him squeeze you tighter.

You heard him inhaled through his nose. "Where were you?" he asked, pulling away.

"I was at the gym, remember? I told you that's where I was going after work," you gently reminded him as he leaned back to rest on the couch.

"Was Jack there?"

His voice was terse and you narrowed your eyes at the shift in his behavior.

"Yeah..."

Flip frowned and clenched his jaw  
Flip frowned and clenched his jaw. "I don't want you going there. I don't want you alone with him." he said quickly before taking another drink of his beer.

You glared over at him, feeling like he was accusing you of something. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't fucking like him. And I don't trust the motherfucker. That's what it means."

He had every right to feel that way but you didn't appreciate the hateful attitude that came out of nowhere towards you.

"Okay, well you don't have to be so rude about it..."

"How am I being rude? You should know this by now. He's a fucking snake... Sara said it herself!"

"Okay! I'm just saying... I didn't do anything wrong. I was there for my class and then I lifted weights after."

Flip stopped himself mid-drink and swallowed fast, beer dripping from his chin as he wiped it away.

"You lifted weights with him?"

You hesitated.

"...well...yeah..."

Flip shook his head and threw his hand up. "Are you fucking kidding me? Why don't you guys just rub oil all over each other while you're at it."

"Oh my gods... you're being ridiculous!" you couldn't help but laugh at his jealous nature that was clearly intensified since he was drunk.

"I see the way he looks at you, I'm not blind. Apparently, you're fucking blind if you think I'm being ridiculous!"

"Chill out! I'm not blind, I know he's had a crush on me..."

"HAS. Has a crush on you..."

"Okay, fine. I know he has a crush on me, I know he's crossed the line sometimes..."

Shit. 

You said it before you could even stop yourself.

"Excuse me? What lines has he crossed? And when??" Flip stood up from the couch and towered over you. You stood up slowly to match him.

"It's nothing, really. He's just made some comments."

"Comments about what?"

You exhaled and walked into the kitchen to pour yourself some wine because there was no going back now. He wanted to know and you knew you'd have to tell him about Jack's behavior towards you when no one else was around.

Flip followed you on your heels.

"I dunno, honey... he said something about how he wouldn't be able to keep his hands off of me, either... or something like that. It was after he walked in on us."

Flip smirked. "That fucking perv," he said to himself, watching you pour yourself some wine. "What else?"

You took a long drink because you really didn't want to keep talking about this. He waited for you to finish.

You placed the glass down on the counter and looked over at him. "There was that one time he hinted ... that I shouldn't be with you... when I slapped him..."

He stepped in closer to you. "What exactly did he say?"

You peeked up at him.

"He said it was hard for him to watch me settle for you." you couldn't even meet Flip's eye when you said it, finding it difficult to see the fury in his eyes.

Flip was fuming, ready to hunt this man down and kill him. 

He began to lift the almost empty bottle of beer up to finish it off but instead, he stopped himself, gazing at the bottle in his hand and feeling like Jack might be right, which only irritated him more. He stretched past you and dumped the rest out into the sink. 

Pissed off and sighing heavily, he walked over to the backdoor and held it open as he chucked the empty bottle, aiming it at the side of the garage and letting it smash to pieces. You flinched from the noise.

Flip came back into the kitchen and stood tall, crossing his arms.

You looked over at him, unsure of what to say next to diffuse the situation. You walked over and wrapped your arms around his waist, prompting him to uncross his arms and let them rest around your frame.

"I won't go back to the gym. I won't put myself in situations where I'm alone with him anymore," you reassured him knowing how opposed he felt about it.

"I wish I could just fire his ass," he replied, resting his chin on the crown of your head as you both embraced each other. "He needs to understand that you're mine. You're off-limits."

"I know, baby. I mean, we're engaged. That's a pretty clear message."

Flip made a contemplative sound then pulled away to look at you.

"Maybe we should send him a different message."

You pinched your brow, gazing up and noticing that he was giving you that look, again.

"I'm afraid to ask but... what exactly do you have in mind?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he needs to hear how happy you are."

Your heart started beating fast, watching the mischievous grin paint across his face. He started to unbuckle his belt and you glanced down and back up.

"Okay but I need a shower first... "

He pulled you over to the kitchen table, turning you around and pushing down on your upper back so you'd bend over it. 

"I don't have the patience for that... you're gonna take this cock right now," he whispered over your shoulder with the smell of beer still laced on his breath.

He slipped your leggings down to the middle of your thighs, exposing your bare ass as he spit in his hand and rubbed your pussy, bringing wetness to your core. You felt the head of his dick soon after, working up and down between your slit before driving inside, earning him an immediate hiss through your teeth and a moan as you exhaled.

He moved his hips back and forth, pushing and pulling in and out of you, letting your body get used to his size. He always felt so much bigger when he fucked you from behind and it took you longer to adapt to the initial shock of it.

Flip reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out his cell phone, dialing Jack's number. You were too consumed in the moment to recognize what was happening until you saw him place the phone down on the table in front of you and you saw Jack's name on the phone screen with the word 'dialing'.

"Flip..." you whispered from surprise, then you felt him take a handful of your hair and tug backward, causing you to moan from the pain.

"Who fucks you this good?" he ordered in a dark, heavy voice. You moaned against the feeling of him pulling your hair and pushing deeper into you.

"You do, daddy....mmmm.... fuck...."

"Yeah... you love this big cock?" he tugged harder on your hair.

".....Mmmm... oh god... yes...yes..."

Flip released his grip on your hair, placing both hands on your hips so he could thrust into you harder. You peered down at the phone and saw that the call timer was running, knowing that either Jack was listening, or his voicemail picked up.

A loud smack to your ass echoed from the kitchen walls and you yelped.

Although you felt flustered to have Jack hear you fucking Flip, you did want to make it known that Flip was yours and you weren't leaving him for anyone.

"Fuck, baby... I love you so much. You make me so happy..." you said clearly, hearing Flip moan at your encouraging words.

"Yeah? I take care of you, don't I, sweet thing?"

"Mmmm, you do... you're so fucking good to me."

You noticed the call ended on the phone and you smirked to yourself trying to refocus back to the moment.

Flip's hand's crawled up your back, resting on your shoulder for a moment before he pulled out, and spun you around, laying you down on the table. He tore your leggings completely off so you could wrap your legs around his waist, resting your back fully on the table as he rocked his hips into you, staring down into your eyes while doing so.

"You're such a good girl for me. So faithful..."

You clutched the sides of his face and drew him into a kiss as he moaned against your mouth. Flip was right, he was always making love to you no matter how fast or slow he was going, no matter how dirty he behaved or dominant he got... it was always out of love.

Within the next few minutes, you came hard, shouting into the kitchen, feeling the table scooting against the wooden floor below. Flip took a bit longer to cum since he was still partially drunk which you figured was his own fault. He grunted loudly when you finally felt the warmth of his release inside of you.

After taking your long overdue shower, you went to bed that night with Flip spooning you in a dead sleep. You laid there with your eyes open, staring into the darkness in front of you and wondering how Jack reacted to what you both just did. You were sure it hurt his feelings, but maybe that's what was needed to get your point across so he would stop trying to make moves on you.

Would Flip still think it was a good idea in the morning once he was sober and back to work? Would Jack quit his job, having had enough of the bullshit? Would he freak out on you?

So many things ran through your mind.

One thing was for sure. Your love for Flip was indisputable and your friendship with Jack was officially over.

Your love for Flip was indisputable and your friendship with Jack was officially over.


	10. Last Words

TW: kidnapping and mention of forced sedation against your will. HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS!

*******************************************

Flip's phone woke him up from a dead sleep as he peeked one eye open to see who was calling at such an early hour. 

"Yeah?"

"Hey, man," Hopper's voice was on the other end.

Flip cleared his throat. "Hey.."

He moved to sit at the edge of the bed, head feeling heavy and fuzzy from the night before. Pieces of what happened started to come together as he let out a large yawn.

"Someone would like to say 'hello'..." Hopper said, shuffling the phone around as Flip waited for whomever.

He squinted, looking over his shoulder to see you still asleep. He recalled how you both had some pretty scandalous sex last night, having called Jack to listen in on the tryst. 

"You can't rid of me, boy. I'm still here."

The refreshing sound of Ron's voice caused Flip's breath to catch in his chest.

"You fucker..." Flip chuckled from relief. "Jesus Christ, man, how the hell are ya?"

Ron made a deep groan, shifting in his hospital bed to sit up straighter.

"I would love to know the answer to that question. Waitin' on the doc to come see me. Guess I've been out for a day or so." he replied. "I woke up to a fine ass nurse giving me a sponge bath so all in all, life ain't too bad."

Flip smirked, shaking his head. "I heard it was a seizure?" he said, walking out of the bedroom and into the bathroom to urinate. The sounds of liquid flowing echoed loudly in the room.

"The hell, man, you taking a leak while you're on the phone? Real classy."

Flip snickered at his disgust. "Don't listen, then."

Ron scoffed. "Anyway... yeah, I guess. Never had a seizure before now. I don't even remember what happened or how it happened. It's crazy."

Flip had a flashback to when Mandy drugged him, having felt the same way and it sent a cold chill through him. He considered the same approach may have been taken on Ron, but in an effort to overdose him, triggering a seizure in the process.

Ron started whistling to himself when he saw another cute nurse bring in his breakfast and place the tray in front of him with a kind smile.

"Well, well, well... it ain't the bingo hall but I gotta say, I'm enjoying myself," he said to Flip.

"C'mon, don't be a creepy patient. Nurses put up with too much bullshit as it is."

"Worry about you. I'll worry about me." Ron said, taking a bite of fresh fruit, giving the nurse a wink as she walked out.

Flip smirked again at him. "Mhm. Well, I'm glad you're okay. Let me know if you need anything. But don't expect flowers since you never brought me any."

Ron hummed while taking a sip of his apple juice. "Maybe I'll come pay y'all a visit. I could use a change of scenery for a bit. Take some time off. Relax."

"For sure. Doors always open."

You turned over in bed, hearing the muffled voice of Flip in the other room. Checking your phone, you noted the time of 6:30AM then immediately noticed you had a missed text.

From Jack...

You sat up, halting your breath in your chest and striving to wake up your mind in preparation for whatever he sent. 

You pushed on the notification.

I can play games too.

His words were followed by a picture; an aerial shot of his bare abs and what appeared to be his well-endowed erection pushing against the dark cloth of his boxer briefs. You blushed with embarrassment, feeling guilty for even looking at the unsolicited picture. 

You inadvertently dropped your phone just as Flip came back into the bedroom. 

"Hey baby, Ron's gonna be okay-" he started, then stopped when he saw your expression. "What's up?"

You hesitated but knew you had to show him Jack's absurd response to Flip's attempt to shut him down. You lifted your phone up and handed it to him without a word. 

At that point, you could still count on one hand how many times you've seen Flip turn from docile to completely furious. The look in his eyes when he saw the text was nothing less than wrathful. But somehow, and to your surprise, he managed to contain it all. He calmly handed the phone back to you, lifted his brows smugly, and swallowed as if to say "oh well". 

That behavior was confusing but you didn't want to ask questions and inadvertently pry open a can of rage if he was trying to control himself. 

"Let's get ready for work. I have a lot waiting for me so getting there early is a good idea," he suggested, changing the subject before grabbing a clean flannel from the closet and jeans from the dresser. 

Nodding, you got up and did the same, taking note of how detached he appeared to be. 

Once at the station, you settled into your cubicle across the bullpen from Flip's office. You hated being so far away now, unable to clearly see him whenever you wanted from your desk. You pulled up your first case of the day and started working on it, glancing down at your phone and remembering that you hadn't deleted Jack's text. You didn't want to see it again but you did want to permanently delete it. Too bad you could delete it from your mind.

Unlocking the screen, you held your breath while you pulled it back up, finger hovering over the delete button.

"Hey." 

The low voice from behind you made your heart jump into your throat, startled you quickly put your phone face down on the desk but it was too late. Flip stood behind you with a fresh cup of coffee that he had prepared for you. Carefully, he placed the mug down and grabbed your phone, face strained as it roused to turn a shade of red, already knowing that you had the picture up.

"I was deleting it-" your voice wavered.

"Allow me." He said firmly, deleting the photo before he scrolled through recent texts between the two of you to see if Jack had sent anything else of concern. Flip swallowed, knowing he was being overly possessive but he fucking hated the guy. He deleted your whole text history with Jack before tossing the phone into your lap and walking away without another word. 

With the pit in your stomach growing, you knew he was pissed at the fact he caught you looking at it again, even if the intention was to delete it. The picture was incredibly hot and indecent, after all. You took a deep breath, reaching for the cup of coffee he brought you, made exactly how you like it, and made a pouty face. You hated the feeling of Flip being disappointed in you.

Although, a pitiful part of you did find it arousing that Jack was so adamant about changing your mind about Flip. Not that you ever would, Flip was everything to you; no one would come between the two of you. But watching how jealous Flip would become at Jack's persistence was quite frankly like a super sexy fantasy come to life. Two, attractive, grown men fighting over you? This was a first.

Your peaceful thoughts and coffee break was disrupted when you heard a boisterous commotion followed by lots of shouting. You abruptly stood from your cubicle, peering through the bullpen, and saw exactly what was happening. Flip and Jack were beating the shit out of each other while several officers were trying to intervene to break it up.

Son of a bitch.

You rushed over to help intercede, shouting at both Flip and Jack along with everyone else.

Jack's nose was already bloody, shirt ripped, hair disheveled, as he tried to defend himself. It was obvious that Flip was the one who started it as he held Jack to the floor by his collar, delivering blows one right after the other to his face. 

"You're lucky I don't fucking strangle you..."

Flip seethed as two officers pulled him away. Jack adjusted himself, wiping the blood from under his nose with his knuckle as he got up from the floor.

"Be my fucking guest!" Jack shouted with crimson-stained teeth, arms open wide to welcome it.

Flip was escorted back to a holding cell to cool off while everyone tried to figure out how to properly handle the situation. You pushed on Jack's chest, shoving him out of frustration.

"What?!-"

"Why did you have to send that picture?? That was stupid," you vented.

"Are you kidding me right now? That was stupid!? He called me while you two were-"

He couldn't even say the words, shaking his head.

"...he's a fucked up drunk who doesn't deserve you."

You groaned, rubbing your forehead, coming to realize how all of this got out of hand. "Look...you have to stop. That's what he's trying to tell you. What we are trying to tell you. I'm not leaving him, Jack," you insisted. "Just... stop."

Jack reflected, peering down at you from his towering height. 

"Okay. Fine." he replied in defeat, walking past you and out of the station, leaving to go who knows where to blow off steam.

A few hours later, you had the privilege of visiting Flip in his holding cell to share the fun news that the Captain had ordered him to spend the night jail as punishment. 

Flip was sitting on the metal bench, hunched over with his forearms resting on his knees, knuckles still red and swollen. Seeing the man you love behind bars after a jealous fit of rage should have angered you or a least saddened you. 

But the spectacle of him as a bad boy who was being disciplined for his actions turned you on; he was like your sexy prisoner and you smiled at the thought while approaching the slated wall of metal separating you from him. 

"Would the criminal like some fresh coffee?" you asked, passing a cup of hot joe through the bars as a peace offering. 

Flip exhaled sharply through his nose, shaking his head and getting up to take the cup from you.

"Did I lose my job?" He asked, gazing at you while taking his first sip.

"Nope."

He lifted his brows, seeming somewhat impressed and relieved. 

"Cool. You gonna let me out, then?" he impatiently asked.

"Nope." You grinned at him with amusement. "You gotta stay the night, big boy. Captain's orders."

He scoffed. "Well, that's some horseshit."

"Better than getting fired," you returned, stretching for him through the bars and tugging on his shirt to pull him in closer. He looked so damn good, you couldn't help yourself. "It's lunchtime. Are you hungry?" you asked suggestively, hands grasping the waist of his jeans.

He gave you a fascinated look, unsure if you were really insinuating something sexual or not. "Hungry for...?" His lips found yours, kissing softly while his own hand slipped through the bars to reach the side of your face. 

You hummed, drawing your lips away and brushing your nose against his. "A slice of peach pie?" you smirked.

Flip narrowed his eyes with a growl before glancing past you at the security guard who was pretending not to pay attention to your little tryst. 

"I still don't know if you mean actual pie or pussy but either way, the answer is yes, " he kissed you again quickly. "Can you come back when they do a shift change at 5?" he whispered, motioning to the guard. "We'll have a good 20-minute window of privacy."

You bit your lip and nodded. Reaching down, you cupped his manhood and he winced. "Make sure you get nice and hard for me, daddy."

Flip coughed at your forwardness, grasping the bars with tight fists. 

"Oookay. Yes ma'am."

You smiled and released him with ease. 

"I love you," you teased, giving him a little shake as you walked away. 

He squeezed the bars again, red knuckles becoming white.

"I love you more, sweet thang."

The guard made eye contact with Flip who returned a look of innocence back. 

It was about an hour before you were supposed to go have your secret rendezvous with Flip when your phone buzzed with a text from Sara.

Hey can you come home? A water pipe burst in the loft and it's flooding.

"Shit," you said to yourself, trying to call her but she wasn't picking up. You imagined she was likely scrabbling to save her belongings so you swiftly grabbed your purse and rushed out. You sped home, getting there within minutes of her text and hurrying up the stairs to the loft. 

Busting open the door, you were surprised to see no flood... no water at all, actually. Just Sara sitting on her couch looking like she'd been crying.

"Hey... you okay-" 

She gave you a warning look and slightly shook her head in a silent attempt to communicate. You froze, watching her eyes glare past you. Turning slowly, you saw Jack's figure standing tall between you and the door, his hand gripping his pistol at his side.

"Jack. Wha-"

"Sit down." 

His voice was dark and demanding, unlike you've ever heard before.

Your adrenaline kicked in, a thousand thoughts racing through your head while you gradually moved over towards Sara and sat down. You could feel Sara's body trembling next to you and you reached over to grab her hand. 

"What is this, Jack?"

His expression seemed disturbed like he was struggling to get through a bad decision that had already gone too far. He lifted his weapon, scratching his head with the barrel. 

"This is what I hope to be the ending. Of a fucked up rollercoaster I've been on."

You studied his body language, trying to figure out if he was losing his mind and becoming suicidal or if there was something else at play. Recollecting everything you've learned about negotiation, you tried to talk to him.

"Whatever you're going through can be fixed, Jack..."

He laughed, walking over to sit down in the chair facing across from the two of you.

"I know what you're thinking, and you are way off base," he leaned back in the chair, resting the gun on the armrest, aimed directly at you while he lit a cigarette.

You furrowed your brows at the man in front of you, wondering if he was the same Jack you've always known or someone totally different.

"I didn't think you smoked..." you sneered, noting his change in character. 

"There's a lot about me you don't know," he advised, pointing to the coffee table in front of you. You glanced down and saw two glasses of water and two white pills. "But everything is about to become very clear about who I am."

"What is that?"

He blew a thick cloud of smoke out of his mouth and into the air in between you. "From now on, we can do things one of two ways; the easy, comfortable way, which is my personal preference. Or the hard way... which, as you may have guessed, will not be so pleasant for either of us."

Your heart pounded in your chest as the realization of it all came to the surface. Feelings of nauseous hit you, understanding that Jack was never a friend to you at all, but a spy. He was a fucking rat living right under your nose. 

"You're with him. You've been working with Bridges this whole time," you said aloud even though it wasn't needed. An extreme sense of betrayal washed over you, feeling so foolish for ever trusting him. 

"Take the sedative. You'll only be out for a few hours, long enough for me to transport you both."

You paused, taking a moment to organize your thoughts. 

"You're asshole-"

"Take the pill- "

You stood from the couch in defiance.

"Flip is going to kill you!- "

"TAKE the PILL!" He raised his weapon and cocked it, ready to fire on you with bloodshot eyes. Sara reached for you, squeezing your hand to pull you back down to the couch.

"C'mon. Let's just do it," she bargained, tears streaming down her face. 

Slowly cowering back down, you felt your own fear beginning to build behind your eyes, the anxiety of the unknown ahead and remembering how Flip was stuck in that goddamn holding cell until tomorrow morning. You were fucked. 

You took a deep breath and held your tears back.

"Can I use the restroom first?" you asked, mind scrambling to think of a way out of this.

Jack gave you a suspicious glare. "Why?"

You sighed, rolling your eyes. "Because. I started my period today if you must know."

He narrowed his gaze at you and chewed his lip. "Fine. But you have one minute."

You squeezed Sara's hand before releasing it. "It's okay. I'll be right back."

Once in the bathroom, you turned on the faucet and began quietly rummaging through her medicine cabinet in search of something that resembled the white sedative. A bottle of midol caught your eye and you opened it, dumping out a few into your hand. It would work, you just had to remove the word "midol" from the pill. 

Even if Sara took her sedative at least you could be coherent enough to understand where he was taking you and what was going on around you in case you were able to escape. 

Once you scraped off the name, you flushed the toilet and returned back to the couch, trying to appear just as frightened as before.

You reached for the pill on the table and glanced at Jack while you grabbed it along with the glass of water. Sara did the same and while Jack's gaze moved to her momentarily you casually popped the midol pill in your mouth and displayed it on your tongue, proving you were taking the drug as his sight shifted back to you. 

You took a gulp of water and Sara followed suit. Now you just had to wait and behave in the same manner Sara did to fool him. Covertly, you shoved the sedative in between the couch cushions in an effort to leave behind as much evidence as possible.

"Give me your phone," he ordered.

You pulled it out of your purse and gave it to him, watching him turn it off and leave it on the coffee table along with Sara's.

"Do you have any weapons on you?"

You shook your head, giving him a firm no.

Within a few minutes, you noticed Sara's demeanor changing as she became drowsy. You realized it must a strong kind of tranquilizer so you needed to make it convincing once you pretended to pass out. 

Jack waited patiently for the drug to take effect as he observed you both with a sullen expression. It seemed like he truly didn't want to be involved at all with this ordeal and you wondered why he was even associated with the organization. 

"Why are you doing this?" you quietly asked, slouching down into the couch.

His tired eyes peered at you while he rubbed his chin. 

"I'm not doing it to hurt you. If anyone else was ordered here, you'd be in bad shape. They would've knocked you unconscious as opposed to this."

Swallowing, you looked over at Sara, witnessing her eyes becoming heavier with each passing second. You did the same sluggish movements as her, trying to lower your heart rate with slow and steady breaths.

Looking up at Jack, you pleaded for mercy before pretending to let your consciousness slip away. 

"Please don't let anything happen to Sara," you urged with heavy eyes.

Jack's gaze softened, looking as though he might become emotional. He stayed silent, promising nothing because he knew he couldn't. All he could do was his best at keeping you both alive at this point.

Sara drifted off and you did the same, feeling empty that Jack didn't respond to your last plea effort. 

It was up to you to make sure you both stayed safe now. 

******************************************

Flip waited patiently for you come back like you said you would. When you didn't show and the new guard arrived at twenty after, he started to worry and asked if someone could be sent to go find you. 

Fifteen minutes later, an officer came to Flip, telling him that you weren't anywhere in the station and that someone saw you leave over an hour ago. He thought that was unusual and didn't like the idea of not knowing where you rushed off to especially when you were supposed to come back for him. 

He asked if someone could bring him his cell phone so he could check on you. Another officer came in and handed Flip his phone through the bars and he quickly grabbed it, immediately dialing as his blood pressure started mounting.

His heart dropped when it went straight to voicemail. Something was wrong, he was sure of it.

"Let me out," he ordered of the officers, hanging up the phone and shoving it in his back pocket. 

The two deputies looked at each other reluctantly then back at Flip.

"We're really not supposed to. The Captain-"

"Open the fucking door!" He yelled, slamming his hands on the bars. 

One of them glanced over his shoulder at the guard. "Unlock it!"

The guard released the automated lock, and Flip pushed the door open at the sound of the loud clack. 

He hurried through the station, looking out to the parking lot and verifying that the car you shared was gone. He ordered one of the deputies to come with him as a backup in the squad car to canvas the area. 

The first place they started was the home you shared with him and as soon as Flip saw your car in the driveway he felt a small sense of relief if only for a minute. As they searched the property his anxiety rose again since you were nowhere to be found. Flip finally went up into the loft and noticed the two half-empty glasses of water sitting on the coffee table along with your phone and Sara's. 

He knew at the moment that something serious happened to you and Sara and the thought made him sick. The deputy caught up to Flip in the loft and settled in the doorway. 

"Find something, Chief?"

"Yeah....yeah," Flip replied promptly, gesturing to the area around him. "Don't touch anything. Radio the station, we need forensics here immediately."

He perceived Bridges was behind this ploy and his instincts were screaming that you were in danger. He cursed himself for ever pulling the trigger on Mandy and causing this domino effect of chaos to ensue in your lives. 

He knew this dreadful day was coming; he knew Bridges would eventually make his move and try to collect his revenge. But nothing could have prepared Flip for losing you within the blink of an eye. 

"I love you..."

"...I love you more, sweet thang."

Those were your last words to each other. He prayed they weren't the final ones.


End file.
